Wrong question

I've been reading the Dhammapada, or more properly, the introduction written by the translater of the version I've linked, Eknath Easwaran, but there is something I don't quite understand. I recognize no doubt that, were I to raise this question with the Buddha, he would look at me perhaps with a certain amused indulgence, perhaps expressing instead an imperturbable patience that has been too often tried by lesser men such as me.

Perhaps it is Easwaran's fault; he invokes quantum physics to elucidate the Buddha's view of consciousness. But I would ask, what about the period before there was consciousness, or life of any kind? What about the millions of years before there were men? Did dinosaurs contribute to Karma? Did the first single cell organisms? Did complex proteins floating around in a primordial stew?