What does the fossil record tell us about the history of life on Earth?
Fossils give us information about how animals and plants lived in the past. Some animals and plant are only known to us as fossils. By studying the fossil record we can tell how long life has existed on Earth, and how different plants and animals are related to each other.
How does evolution explain the diversity of life on Earth?
Evolution thus explains both the similarities of genetic material across all species and the multitude of species existing in diverse conditions on Earth—its biodiversity—which humans depend on for natural resources and other benefits to sustain themselves.
How does the fossil record suggest that species have changed over time?
How do fossils provide evidence for change over time? As the world changes, plants and animals change with it. Aside from a few living fossils, the species we see today are very different from species that lived in the past. Thus, the fossil record can be used to show that organisms changed to meet new conditions.
How fossil records provide evidence for evolution?
Fossils document the existence of now-extinct species, showing that different organisms have lived on Earth during different periods of the planet’s history. They can also help scientists reconstruct the evolutionary histories of present-day species.
Why is fossil evidence the best evidence for evolution?
Fossils are important evidence for evolution because they show that life on earth was once different from life found on earth today. Paleontologists can determine the age of fossils using methods like radiometric dating and categorize them to determine the evolutionary relationships between organisms.
What is the most compelling evidence for evolution?
Perhaps the most persuasive fossil evidence for evolution is the consistency of the sequence of fossils from early to recent. Nowhere on Earth do we find, for example, mammals in Devonian (the age of fishes) strata, or human fossils coexisting with dinosaur remains.