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Evolution does not make any regard to the origin of the earth. It only deals with the development of existing life.
years
When we examine the fossil record we see that the Earth has not always had the same living organisms living on it that it has today, but rather, there have been many changes, some gradual and some abrupt, over the past few billion years, and those changes show progressive alterations of exactly the kind that evolution would be expected to produce. The fossil record tells us that yes, life has evolved.
65 miliion years
The fossil record shows that there was many different species that were here on Earth millions of years ago and are now extinct. It also provides evidence about the past climate or whether the fossil was found in a shallow bay, and ocean bottom, or a freshwater swamp. Next time, don't ask wiki for answers to your homework. Do it yourself. ;)
Punctuated Equilibria is a theory proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge to explain patterns of speciation in the fossil record. They pointed out that the record seems to show most species undergo long periods of relatively little change (stasis), then undergo rapid bursts of change at irregular (punctuated) intervals. Evolution did not seem to proceed at a stately, constant, slow speed. Gould and Eldredge explained this by taking the standard idea of how species form (allopatric speciation, or speciation in small isolated groups at the periphery of populations) and showing that this process would produce exactly the pattern which is observed in the fossil record. Essentially, evolution and speciation can occur rapidly in small isolated populations, sometimes too quickly for the fossil record to track all of the intermediate forms. The result is what looks like abrupt emergence of forms with little or no transitional stages, when in reality the evolution had occurred through intermediate stages, only too quickly for the slow process of fossilization to capture it.
Answer 1Although Gould was often quote-mined by creationists suggesting that Gould thought that the fossil evidence did not support common descent, none of this relates in any way to natural selection, the proposed mechanism for evolution.Answer 2No. Stephen Jay Gould said that natural selection was the best explanation for the evolution of species. However, he differed from Charles Darwin in his understanding of the process.Whereas Darwin appears to have expected that evolution would be a gradual, continuous process, Gould suggested a process of punctuated equilibrium. He said that species were more likely to have remained relatively unchanged for long periods until a period of rapid evolution resulted in the evolution of new species. He felt that this was more consistent with the fossil record.Answer 3As a palaeontologist by profession this was Gould's area of expertise. Although revered as a great scientist Gould has received some attention from creationists for parts of his comments on the nature of the fossil record. He is quote-mined as referring to the fossil record in relation to evolution in the following way:"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution."Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), 'Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging?' Paleobiology, vol.6(1), January 1980,p. 127."All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between the major groups are characteristically abrupt."Stephen Jay Gould 'The return of hopeful monsters'. Natural History, vol. LXXXVI(6), June-July 1977, p. 24."The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils. Yet Darwin was so wedded to gradualism that he wagered his entire theory on a denial of this literal record:The geological record is (here Gould is quoting Darwin) extremely imperfect and this fact will to a large extent explain why we do not find intermediate varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record will rightly reject my whole theory. (end of quote)Darwin's argument still persists as the favored escape of most paleontologists from the embarrassment of a record that seems to show so little of evolution. In exposing its cultural and methodological roots, I wish in no way to impugn the potential validity of gradualism (for all general views have similar roots). I wish only to point out that it was never "seen" in the rocks.Paleontologists have paid an exorbitant price for Darwin's argument. We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life's history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study."Stephen Jay Gould 'Evolution's erratic pace'. Natural History, vol. LXXXVI95), May 1977, p.14.Gould's commitment to Darwinian evolution followed from an understanding and knowledge of the fossil record that belies the literal text of the quotes lifted out of context by creationists. What the evidence shows is clear from the completestatements of Gould and many other palaeontologists in their proper context, no matter what creationists make of them.
The transition of phyla of organisms over time. That is the great strength of the fossil record; evolution shown in the sedimentary rock.
When we examine the fossil record we see that the Earth has not always had the same living organisms living on it that it has today, but rather, there have been many changes, some gradual and some abrupt, over the past few billion years, and those changes show progressive alterations of exactly the kind that evolution would be expected to produce. The fossil record tells us that yes, life has evolved.
There is strong support for the theory of evolution due to fossils that have been found by archeologists. The fossil records show evidence of evolution over billions of years.
Fossils show the geological history of man and animals.
Darwin believed that the fossil record illustrated the development of new and distinct species over time.
Fossils can be used as evidence for evolution because they can show the development of a species over a long period of time.
The discontinuities in the fossil record that seemed to show that some species or taxons were in a state of non-evolution and then seemed to go through a burst of rapid evolutionary change. This is really only seen in the fossil record and does not have a lot of support in disciplines such as molecular genetic, which genetic divergence back through time in today's genomes.
The fossil record gives us snapshots of the life at one time. We can compare these to modern life and see what traits where key to survival and survived until today. During the age of the dinosaurs when the planet was warmer being cold blooded was an advantage and during ice ages fur and fat where greater advantages.
Fossils show certain species underwent small changes over a period of years the rock in which the fossil is encased dates the fossil and so they can put them in order to show the progression of the physical changes
65 miliion years
The fossil record shows that there was many different species that were here on Earth millions of years ago and are now extinct. It also provides evidence about the past climate or whether the fossil was found in a shallow bay, and ocean bottom, or a freshwater swamp. Next time, don't ask wiki for answers to your homework. Do it yourself. ;)
Fossils or organisms that show the intermediate states between an ancestral form and that of its descendants are referred to as transitional forms. There are numerous examples of transitional forms in the fossil record, providing an abundance of evidence for change over time.