The first thing to know about evolution is natural selection. Most successful mutation is passed to the next gen until it adapts closely with the environment. We are not bears, we are not particularly adept
more than a lifetime. Show and tell
A key difference with other animals is that we identified the need to teach it beyond a lifetime and developed the written language. We were not longer limited to show and tell scenarios. Contrary to the bird, you have access to information detailing how to catch a fish with bread
http://www.nestorian.org/oldest_bible1.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WHRy7CxB2CA/UHFnmu-a19I/AAAAAAAABIg/yUmiL8I3c7w/s1600/02+Egyptian+Language+and+Writing.jpg
160 years between Newton (1666)
Written language opened the gates of research: We can start where somebody else, a previous generation, ended. The human genome project took almost 20 years (1984, the project got underway in 1990, and was declared complete in 2003) and the Sagrada Familia in Spain will is not ready after it started more than a century ago (1882 - 2026).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Dna-split.png