There is a small homework project assigned for this lecture. So, we see that organisms have evolved and diversified and that indeed produces the order in the fossil record, which we can use to deduce relative time. Much of the rest of the course will deal with the relationships of organisms, notably dinosaurs. But organisms also interact with each other and with their surrounding environment. This aspect, which is ecology, has a very special set of effects.
Lets look at the earth.
What we see is a function of life itself - maintaining the atmosphere and regulating Earth's temperature, even the color. Life is active chemical system separated from its surroundings and out of chemical equilibrium with its surroundings. Life reproduces with heredity. There is variation in that heredity. Living things grow and develop.