If you want to have a full experience of the game, it's not recommended to read this article. One of the main challenges of the game is to discover how evolution and new generations work. This article is a shortcut to the entire experience.
Both game concepts are really simple to explain when you put them together.
The benefit of evolving your clan is to make permanent to your lineage the spontaneous mutations (golden neurons). So the more spontaneous mutations you have in adults and elders, the more effective will be your evolution leap.
Spontaneous mutations can come from new clan breeds and that's what links evolution and new generations. Moving to a new generation is an opportunity to activate spontaneous mutations on kids and making space to new kids (elders die and kids become adults). It's not 100% confirmed but it seems you can have 6 members of each "age" at your clan.
The ideal evolution leap would be a clan with 6 elders and 6 adults, all of them with active spontaneous mutations to be made permanent at the clan nervous system.
In this video you can check an evolution leap:
What Happens When You Evolve - Evolution Leap - Ancestors-What Happens When You Evolve
- Sahelanthropus Tchadensis "Toumai" - Unlocked at around 9,000,000 years
- Orrorin Tugenensis "Millenium Man" - Unlocked at around 7,200,000 years
- Ardipithecus Ramidus "Ardi" - Unlocked at around 5,300,000 years
- Australopithecus Afarensis "Lucy" - Unlocked at around 3,000,000 years
- Australopithecus Africanus "The Taung Child" - Unlocked at around 2,500,000(not confirmed)
- Homo Ergaster "Turkana Boy" - Unlocked at 2,000,000 years