Throughout many cultures, a “World Turtle’ or “World Elephant’ creation myth is prevalent. In particular, an Indian myth explains that there is a turtle that holds elephants that holds the world. This has lead to the expression “turtles all the way down’ implying that another turtle stands below the one with the elephants on it’s back and another below that, and so on. But, what came long before turtles and was the origin of life? Microbes! My art piece depict microbes and their origins coming before the world turtle and elephants. I drew the pieces in order, starting with RNAs and proteins, moving to prokaryotes, protozoa, and then multicellular eukaryotic life.
You can find some info on world turtle
and elephant myths here: https://native-science.net/Turtle_Elephant_Myth.htm