You understand that period is a major part of the origin, but it is not
> darwinian selection.

Alright.

I've been thinking of the following definitions of eras.
Some of these eras may have been of zero length -- that is,
didn't happpen.  Some may have happened more than once.
However, here are the definitions:

1. Non-replicating era.  No replication of significance
to life happened.  Just crystal growth and stuff like
that.

2. Weak Replication Era.  Replication happened, but
perhaps usually just something making one copy of itself,
then both disintegrating.  Replication did not extend
for enough generations for evolutionary progress via
mutation and natural selection to occur to any extent
worth mentioning.  Nothing had the staying power to last.
There might have been something that lasted for five generations
during which by great luck there were two beneficial mutations,
but the mutations were not of enough benefit to prevent
the disintegration of all copies.

3. Unrelated Life Era.  Replication happened, and extended
for enough generations that evolution happened;  but
none of that life was an ancestor of anything here today.

4. Current Life Era.  The time from the first ancestors,
by replication, of current life, up to when current life
is all extinct or the universe ends, whichever comes first.  :-)
 >>


As to this first part.
 How about looking at replicating in a different way?

Not SELF replication - but 
sun forced replication  
that denatures then anneals paired nucleotides in a sun cycle 

( non random cyclical sun/heat/uv/ and dry/wet cycle) -

that leads to planet wide replication and variants of replicants.

Comment?
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