Welcome to Gaia! ::

Everything on this planet has a common ancestor. And this is how that happened. First came the single-cell organisms, which adapted to their environments over time. From those single-cell organisms came small multi-cellular organisms, much like the plankton and algae of our time. Those creatures continued to evolve into prehistoric fish. From there, some aquatic fish began to start evolving towards life on land, while others stayed in the water. Amphibians came from those land-walking fish, and eventually spread out. Reptiles and mammals split from those, depending on their climate. We spread from climate to climate, adapting as we went.

Soon we had a whole variety of different things, and it changed depending on where each animal lived. To answer the "similar prenatal appearances," that would be due to the fact that in the beginning, we all have the same shape: a tiny a** little cluster of cells. Of course we're going to look the same.

Anyways, as time went on, the ancestor of humans and monkeys decided to break off into two different species. Humans went off to roam the planes and flatter lands while monkeys remained up higher in the trees. The missing link is going to STAY missing, simply because the missing link died out several thousand years ago... probably around 50,000 or so years. It evolved to survive, and as such, is no longer here. Sure, we might find it's skeleton and what not, but that's about it.

From there, the primitive human species (Which resided in the heart of africa) began to branch out, moving into different continents. In colder continents, humans developed lighter skin to hold heat from the sunlight. Warmer climates developed darker skin to protect against too much sunlight. And somewhere in between there, we began developing means of communication called speech.

And about fifty thousand years later, here we are. Remember that little saying, "Survival of the fittest?" That's what evolution is. Adapt, or die. IF we were to have a tail, it'd be a monkey's tail. We're not reptiles, nor are we that closely related to reptiles. We're warm-blooded.

Not to mention the rediculously strange coincidence of Africa being shaped like a human head...except with a horn.

But the skin thing is kind of screwed up, because lighter colors reflect more light, while darker colors absorb it. The more light is reflected off of a surface, the more light reaches our eyes, and thus the brighter the surface appears.

I've never heard anything about fetuses having gills before, but as for tails, a tail is merely an extension of the spine. And do we not have tailbones? The tails are only there when the legs have not yet fully developed. So really, they never leave. Another thing I have just recently learned is that a human's heart begins with only two chambers, then they split into four.

sweatdrop wow! The old arguement of evolution and Christianity, eh? I don't feel comfortable with discussing this at this point, but I would love to dive into this another time....

...I just watched a few videos about Scientology, then came across Anonymous: a group of hackers that are currently focusing on destroying this religion. I am not involved with either of these parties, but nonetheless, I'm feeling very paranoid. All I gots to say is, that whole situation could make one hell of a movie! dramallama

Except because of the higher absorbtion, they would get hotter more easily, so they've evolved to have longer, thinner bodies to help dissipate the heat.

But what's strange is that some things live with little to no sunlight, and yet are completely black.

The whole world is a great mystery, well thats what i think :3

Indeed, humans are likely to come to a standstill in evolution, if we haven't already. We tend to change our environment rather than ourselves.

But for adapting to dark environments, normally that would be the case, but there are exceptions. Many deep sea creatures have transparent flesh, and actually give off light, rather than have black skin. Some things have black and a second bright color to ward off predators. What I wonder is what causes a specific survival trait to be chosen over another, especially when there's nothing physically forcing it. Something like having thicker fur in colder climates is obvious, but what could possibly cause something like an explosive ant bred for war that can't even feed itself?