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Fossilization is a rare thing. It's even more rare when a fossil survives to modern times, and yet rarer for us to actually find one in some identifiable form. So one should not be surprised if we will be unable to illustrate the whole of our evolutionary history using the fossil record.
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∙ 9y ago
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∙ 13y agoErosion of already deposited layers or a time span of non-deposition.
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∙ 14y ago-Major disasters in the past (asteroids, death of dinosaurs)
-Lost records (land changes over time.)
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∙ 12y agopunctuated equilibra =)
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∙ 8y agoNot everything that dies is preserved.
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Why are there gaps in the fossil record particularly at the end of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras?
Apparently, and with evidence, these were periods of global catastrophes (for life-forms) where massive numbers of organisms went extinct.
Geologists use unconformities to identify?
Gaps in time in the rock record
Shifts in the rock layer locations cannot account for gaps in the rock record?
[True]
Can shifts in the rock layer locations cannot account for gaps in the rock record?
[True]
Gaps in rock record?
unconformities
What is umcomformities?
Gaps in the fossil record/ rock layers because of erosion in the soil.
Why might the fossil record of the early history of these species have gaps?
The lack of a clear fossil record might indicate rapid evolution or that the transitional species was not very widespread.
Was Darwin a Quack?
No. Darwin was the greatest biologist ever to live, and one of the greatest scientific minds to grace our civilisation. No. Darwin acknowledged that there were many potential flaws in his theory, including gaps in the fossil record. Over 150 years later his misgivings have been shown to be well-founded. The gaps he saw, and which go against his theory, are still there.
Do fossil records help to date fossils?
Fossil records contain radiation, and the older the fossil is, the less radiation it gives off. Scientists study how much radiation is in the fossil record, and they find out how old the earth is.
Why are there gaps in the fossil record particularly at the end of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras?
Apparently, and with evidence, these were periods of global catastrophes (for life-forms) where massive numbers of organisms went extinct.
Are there major gaps in the rock record?
yes
What does the fossil record being incomplete mean?
That there are gaps. For example we may have fossils from 30million years ago and then ones from 20million years ago but then none inbetween. This means we don't know about the evolution between these two point.
Geologists use unconformities to identify?
Gaps in time in the rock record
Which statement explains something that the fossil record indicates?
The fossil record tells us what types, kinds, and numbers of organisms may have lived in the past, as well as what they ate, what age they lived in, how they moved, where they lived, Their activities, how they breathed, how they reproduced, their appearance, the climate they lived in, how they died, their lifespan, and what led to their evolution and their extinction.
Which of the following might describe why the fossil record for invertabrates is fragmentary?
There are many reasons for gaps within the fossil record: -The wearing down of rock and dirt (Also known as erosion) -Earthquakes and volcanos because they mess with the layers of rock -Many living things do not become fossils, leaving no fossils behind, in general. -Many environments on Earth are not good for making fossils. Therefore, you will not see many fosils from those environments.
How is the punctuated equilibrium a better model for dealing with gaps and missing links in fossil records?
Answer: The late evolutionary professor of Palaeontology Stephen Jay Gould, proposed an evolutionary theory called 'punctuated equilibrium' to explain the evidence he found in the fossil record. His theory essentially meant that evolution proceeded by 'jumps' rather than gradually as Darwin proposed.The evidence was the fact (still the case today), that the many intermediate forms that are required by evolution to proceed in the standard Darwinian manner just do not exist. Gould once stated that '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 … in any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the gradual transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and "fully formed." (Stephen Jay Gould, Evolution's erratic pace, Natural History 86(5):14, May 1977.)The idea was that these 'jumps' occurred in small isolated populations which were thus not as likely to be fossilised. Thus Gould together with Niles Eldredge, explained the large, seemingly unbridgeable gaps in the fossil record, the study of which he was an expert.
Shifts in the rock layer locations cannot account for gaps in the rock record?
[True]
