So, this is an attempt to simplify the known links in the history of human evolution and it’s pretty good as a starting point for learning more about it… but it also presents it in a way that encourages the idea that evolution follows some form of linear progression from one major species to another, and from simpler to more complex forms only (e.g. that evolution has a direction or makes “progress”). This is really bad and leads to a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings.

I feel like this kind of presentation is similar to the Bohr atomic model in that it’s sort of an easy way to start visualizing and thinking about the topic, but not really an accurate representation of how it works. It will be necessary later to explain the shortcomings of the presentation… which unfortunately leaves some people feeling that they were “lied to” during the initial teaching. It’s not that it’s “wrong” per se, but that it’s simplified to a point that it creates problems.

Everything after 430 Ma ago was a mistake. We need to go back.

This is really neat! It makes me wonder about all the different evolutionary branches that didn’t persist over time or leave a fossil record.