Maggie Koerth-Baker puts our chronology in context:
[E]volution does not work towards making humans. That's entirely the wrong way to think about it. The creatures alive today are not our ancestors. Instead of a stair-step, with humans at the top, we stand alongside the kangaroo and the platypus, each of us at the end of its own narrow road. If we look back, into the past, we can see those paths turn and branch and cul-de-sac. Go far enough, and our paths meet at a crossroads. But in between that common ancestor and ourselves, the road is littered with cousins that didn't quite make it.
(Image: Postcards From Google Earth, Bridges, a collection of messed-up 2D to 3D images by Clement Valla)
The Dish 