How do fossils provide evidence for the history of life?
1 Answer
Fossils are a record of living things preserved in rock layers,
Explanation:
Fossils are the remains or evidence of living things. fossils can be actual preserved organic material ( amber, frozen masadons. ) mineralized bones, and shells, casts, molds, impression of leaves and footprints.
By studying the remains of living things an idea of what the living things were like and some idea of the environment in which they lived.
The fossils are generally interpreted thru the lens of Darwinian evolution, that is descent through modification. The simplest fossils are assumed to be the oldest and the more complex younger. There is a general tendency for the smaller fossils to be found in the lower levels of the rock strata. However there are numerous exceptions to this.
The fossil record shows sudden appearance of major fossil types followed by stasis. This is in contradiction of the predictions of Darwinian evolution of slow uniform process. Punctuated equilibrium is an attempt to modify the Neo Darwinian theory to explain the gaps in the fossil record.
Fossils provide evidence of the types of life that lived in the past and the environments where they lived. The fossil evidence must be interpreted to give meaning to the evidence. There is controversy over how the evidence show be interpreted.
