Others, however, believe that the fossil evidence suggests that, at various stages in the history of life, evolution progressed rapidly, in spurts, and that major changes occurred at these points.

An evolving group may have reached a stage at which it had an advantage over other groups and was able to exploit new niches in nature. Climate change may also have produced a “spurt”, as might the extinction of other groups or species, leaving many niches vacant.

Today, many years later, many believe that evolution has progressed at the same steady rate and that the absence of transitional forms can be explained by Darwin’s argument that there are huge gaps in the fossil record and that transition usually occurred in one restricted locality.

Paleontologists still argue about the origins of major groups, though new fossil finds since Darwin’s time have cleared up many of the disparities in the fossil record. Even during Darwin’s lifetime, some transitional forms were found.

One of the Tibetan names for this mountain translates as “Mountain So High That No Bird Can Fly Over It”. It was first measured in 1852 and was called Peak XV until 1865, when it was named after the British Surveyor of India, Sir George Everest.

About 200 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent broke away from a vast southern super-continent called Gondwanaland. It drifted northeast across the sea and collided with the Asian landmass. These two huge landmasses buckled, rather like cars in a head-on collision, and rose up to form the world’s tallest mountain.

Mapping the Himalayas and Everest wasn’t easy. Foreigners were not welcome, so Himalayan traders were recruited to infiltrate the area and gather enough information to allow accurate maps to be made.

Fossilized fish remains have been found high up on the slopes of Everest proving that the world’s highest mountain once lay at the bottom of the sea. How did this happen?

 The construction of new houses came to a standstill during the war, and this, together with growing demand, led to an estimated shortage of close to a million houses when the war was over.

 In the absence of housing regulations, including the availability of loans to the less well-off, poor-quality housing was built by private enterprise to meet the growing demand at rents that people could afford.

Before the First World War, most housing in Britain was provided on a rental basis as the cost of housing was beyond the means of the average family and mortgages were hard to come by.

This created a dilemma, since wartime inflation had pushed up wages and the cost of building materials with the result that private enterprise was no longer able to provide the houses needed at rents which people could afford.