Is EVOLUTION limited or limitless? Do some things evolve to a max and stop while others are always evolving to the next level?

Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply Durdle. If homo saps were never here I wonder what species would still exist? What species have homo saps destroyed? Happy Saturday! :) Of course I shall ask. This post was edited by RosieG at July 6, 2019 2:05 AM MDT

If our species had not appeared? An interesting question. I don't know if anyone has considered that. 

If all others had existed then it's possible the Neanderthals would be "top" primate now. This was a very close brother species that lived for a time alongside us. For a while they were thought simply to be a race of humans but were later identified as a distinct hominid (human-type species). No-one knows quite why they died out but they are attracting a lot more respect than in the past, thanks to new archaeological evidence. One idea was an inability to adapt to changing environmental conditions.

It's thought H. Neanderthalis and Sapiensis interbred, thanks to common genetic traits. By normal justice assuming guilt unless proven otherwise, it's unfair to assume the cartoon image of violence and rape, rather than willing consort. They may have seen each other simply as people of slightly different appearance, and possibly the Neanderthals were simply interbred out of existence.

Otherwise, I think all other plants and animals would have carried as normal, and done very nicely thank you!

Your last question is very hard to answer too. 

There are many species we know have been destroyed by Mankind; but extinction can only be assessed if the species are identified while still extant, like the Dodo which was hunted to death; or at least left sufficient traces for their demise to be reasonably clearly at least pushed towards extinction by Man. One example is the Woolly Mammoth, which seems to have become confined to dwindling populations in Northern Siberia, and became hunted away. (Ones found preserved in the tundra had died naturally, but in peat bogs which with the freezing, help preserve the bodies.)

How do I know something about this?  An interest in Geology, and in the sciences generally. 

Thank you for your very thoughtful and informative reply Durdle. I appreciate it as usual. Here's the thing. Homo saps are greedy and selfish. Many or most don't  give a rat's a** about the earth other than what they can suck dry from it. They disavow any responsibility for the rape of the earth. So I wonder have we done more harm than good? The earth sans homo saps might have been a blissful Paradise for all living creatures. I know deaths among the species would occur but wouldn't it be organic due to just trying to survive? We homo saps kill to clothe ourselves with the skin of other animals. We aren't satisfied with having what we need. We lust after what we want and that just might mean taking the share others deserve. Do other animals operate out of greed or hate? I expect they operate from fear but that is a natural thing I think. The ways homo saps have found to destroy decimate annihilate pollute shocks me. That most of them feel no guilt is sad. So maybe in a parallel universe there is such an earth as that. A place that enjoys the absence of homo saps. Our earth suffers for the presence of them. Happy Sunday! :)

Tell him to let go of my hair......it's a real drag and I much prefer to have my leg pulled...:)

Trump is grabbing your hair and that is all you are worried about?  I would chop it off before I would let him touch me.  

Oh my gosh E! Where in the heck didja find this? Gadzooks yikes good grief! An image I shall not soon forget. Thank you for your reply and the great graphic and Happy Saturday!  :) This post was edited by RosieG at July 6, 2019 7:39 AM MDT

Go to 'Google Images' I just typed 'caveman trump'. You can find almost any image you want. I even found my ex and her partner.

Vey unfair to the much-maligned "caveman" though....

Yeah...I know. It's like someone calling me a pig. I tell them do not insult the pigs.

Not all pigs are good. Some are insane.  Some work in the White House.