Another phrase in that verse that gives me pause is, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."  What exactly is "...the image of God...?"  Could it be that we have a spirit that is eternal?  Could it be because we have the ability to connect emotionally and interactively with other humans and that we have the ability to "know."

Something unique happened in the creation of a human, "God...breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." This is much different than the other biological life He had created.  This human was different than any human that had lived before this.  This human had capacity to be, to do, to think, to design, and many other things.  They had "soul."

But the biggest difference is that he had the ability to communicate with his Creator.  God deemed him worthy to walk in a garden with Him.  Side by Side.  To talk to his Creator.  The animals weren't given that privilege--man was given dominion over them.  The only thing that was above a human was God Himself.  And man held God's spirit--the breath of God--within himself.

You may have been given pause to what I wrote about, "...different than any human that had lived before this."  We can trace Adam to 6 to 8000 years ago through Matthew and Luke's genealogies.  But in strata, bones of human remains have been found that are older than this.  Through carbon dating (decay of radioactive carbon) we can find the age of those bones--and many are much, much, much older than Adam.  If you want to know more about carbon dating, Google it.  There is an entire course in college--Organic Chemistry--that studies carbon.  (Yes, I've taken it.)  Radioactive isotopes in carbon have what is called a half-life.  And over a long period of time, dating can be accurate.

No problem.  When Cain killed Able, he asked God to put a mark on his head so "...the people out there...) wouldn't kill him.   Who were these people out there?  We know that Cain went to the land of Nod and took a wife.  So we have no Biblical contradiction with there having been people on earth before Adam, Eve, Cain and Able.  But we have no record of them being in the image of God.  No record of them "holding" the breath of God.  God has not told us everything.  But what he has told us agrees with scientific facts.  Not scientific theories.  I think you can rest assured that what God tells us will never contradict with truth.  True truth.  Verified, and actual.  Not theorized.