Unit Warm-Up
Can you solve the riddle below? Hint: if you’ve read J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, solving the riddle should be a breeze for you.
This thing all things devours
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers
Gnaws iron, bites steel
Grinds hard stones to meal
Slays king, ruins town
And beats high mountain down.
What is the answer to the riddle?
The answer is time. Time changes everything. This is especially true for Earth. Time changes the shape of the landscape (beats high mountain down), and time changes the appearance and character of life on Earth (devours birds, beasts, trees, flowers). From an ancient Earth dominated by only simple bacteria, to the swampy forests of the dinosaurs, to the rise of human civilization, life on Earth changes and always has.
