Anaximander thought that all things came from a single primal substance which was infinite, eternal and ageless and encompassed all the worlds. The primal substance was transformed into the substances around us and they could be transformed into each other. He had a concept of cosmic 'justice' ordering the cosmic strife of the elements.
He believed in evolution, both of the world and the animal kingdom and thought that man, like all animals, was descended from fishes.
He also thought that the earth was a cylinder, that the sun was as large (or much larger) than the earth.
Quite perceptive it seems, or maybe just lucky?
(Barnes dates him slightly earlier than Thales based on dates given by later philosophers but he was reportedly a student of Thales)
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