[LonelyCon]

They seem to constantly make discoveries showing that all of the really essential stuff was present -- POOF! -- right at the beginning when life was starting out.

Except that, you know, the evidence we have so far is that life was starting out about 3.8 billion years ago and this study shows sperm originating 600 million years ago. That's a 3.2 billion-year-gap, so not exactly "POOF!"

[ClearCase_guy]

About 600 million years ago, the Cambrian Explosion occurred (so they say). They say Explosion. I say Poof. It's a controversial event in which most of the major groups of complex life suddenly arrive on the scene. Since then, the groups seem to have been tweaked, but there hasn't been such a repetition of sudden Life.

Science has not yet settled on an explanation.

[CTOCS]

Then how did man and animals reproduce b4 the 600M year milestone?