Conversely, it can be amazingly rare to break out of these local maxima. For instance, it took 60 million years from the first trees until the appearance of th

Conversely, it can be amazingly rare to break out of these local maxima. For instance, it took 60 million years from the first trees until the appearance of the right fungi able to decompose the lignin in wood. (Coal deposits arose because trees from the Carboniferous Period had nothing to make them rot). If you think about it, that's a very long time for a very small amount of evolution. Equally, as I understand it, all life on Earth has a common ancestor, and therefore a single origin. So life only started here once. And therefore is exceedingly rare.