Well even Albert Einstein had the work of others to go on but as you say one thing leads to another and so on.
Hey you never know for sure with animals they thought for years that bears where not able to purposefully use tools until a brown bear was spotted in Alaska repeatedly using a rock to crush open sea shells.And at one time we where pretty primitive 5,000 years ago we had to hitch rides on the backs of dinosaurs the day after earth was made.