Epic of Evolution

Eric J Chaisson discussed the main stages that he sees between the Big Bang 13.82 billion yeras ago and us today.  Humanity has its roots in a very deep past that preceeded our own appearance.  We are made out of the quarks that appeared almost immediately after the Big Bang, the hydrogen that formed 400,000 years later, from carbon that was fused in stars long ago, from LUCA (the Last Universal Common Ancestor) about 3.8 billion years ago, and from more recent hominin ancestors in Africa just a few hundred thousand years ago.

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~ejchaisson/

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~ejchaisson/cosmic_evolution/docs/splash.html