I’m listening to some Teaching Company lectures (I guess they’re called The Great Courses now, but I don’t like that) called “Major Transitions in Evolution.” The lecturer is a paleontologist named Andrew Martin. This, from about 10 minutes into his first lecture:
“…and mammals later underwent additional evolutionary leaps, from egg-laying to giving live birth, and from hoofed land-dwellers to whales. Primates and humans are also very interesting. There are several important steps involved in their overall transition from tree-dwelling primates to the eventual evolution of humans capable of documenting the fossil record and understanding how it related to evolution, including that of our own lineage.”