Evolutionary History of Life - The Present

The Present

Oxygenic photosynthesis accounts for virtually all of the production of organic matter from non-organic ingredients. Production is split about evenly between land and marine plants, and phytoplankton are the dominant marine producers.

The processes that have driven evolution are still operating. Well-known examples include the changes in coloration of the peppered moth over the last 200 years and the more recent appearance of pathogens that are resistant to antibiotics. There is even evidence that humans are still evolving, and possibly at an accelerating rate over the last 40,000 years.

Read more about this topic:  Evolutionary History Of Life

Famous quotes containing the words the present and/or present:

    The Past—the dark unfathom’d retrospect!
    The teeming gulf—the sleepers and the shadows!
    The past! the infinite greatness of the past!
    For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    These wonderful things
    Were planted on the surface of a round mind that was to become our present time.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    How do you know antiquity was foolish? How do you know the present is wise? Who made it foolish? Who made it wise?
    François Rabelais (1494–1553)