Did aliens contribute to evolution?

I was just watching a tv program which presented viewers of a science series' votes for the top 10 scientific discoveries of all time. Darwin's theory of evolution was voted number one.

I'm not interested in a religion vs science debate, and I have no scientific background, so I can't intelligently discuss Darwin's theory.

But as a curious non-science guy, I've thought that it makes sense that natural selection could very well explain how individual species slowly evolve over time. On the show they described how the shape of a particular bird's beak would help it get food, and I can believe that the birds without that shape of beak might die out.

But I struggle to imagine more radical evolutionary changes. It's hard for me to imagine the first fish, presumably with gills, walking out of the water and surviving.

Some people believe that non-human entities participated in the evolution of humans by introducing new genetic elements into our biology. Who knows whether that's true, but those that believe it's true usually think that the aliens interfered only with homo sapien.

Is it possible that these aliens had a hand in the broader environment of all Earth species' evolution? Did they modify fish so that they could walk out of the water and survive? (I have to say that I would prefer that a creator god do the radical stuff, not the aliens.)

Please excuse these uneducated ramblings.

id say thats more likely than "god snapped his fingers". In fact, how likely is it that at some point in the future we, if we get to space, wouldnt do some genetic manipulation on other planets...say to produce some kind of worker animals or something? With our current race to genetically manipulate everything on our planet it doesnt sound too far fetched.

What if the planet itself is an intelligent being that can micromanage the ecosystems and the lifeforms that occupy them?

i would love to be able to design animals.
i'm sure the technology will eventually be available to use a very user-friendly interface in order to construct exactly what you want the appearance and function of specific parts of the lifeforms.
intelligently and artistically design the metabolism, cognitive ability, senses...
and obviously make a built-in mutation ability.. in order for your lifeforms to change when in compromised long term environmental situations that are lethal.
If you DIDN'T include this "dynamic adaptation" ability... your little project wouldn't last very long.
This "dynamic adaptation" .. may be viewed by many as "evolution"..

I don't see how it's so hard to believe that intelligent beings out there.. do this and love doing it.. and to it ALOT.
I don't see how hard it is to consider that we may be a result of that.
Or that what we once were, (lesser than we are nor or MORE than we are now) ... was changed.. into what we are now.

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if our planet is an intelligent being, then we are indeed quite the cancer.