How do fossils provide evidence supporting Darwin's theory of evolution?

Answer 1

you finds a fossil of a creature from a certain timeline, then you find the same creature with some changes in a timeline later than the previous and if you have enough fossils you can see how the organism appears at its earliest place in the fossil record( some organisms only appear in the fossil record once they have evolved in a way that makes fossilization possible eg shell, jellyfish are very rare in fossils because they are mostly water) and see the organism change over time into a completely different animal through a series of consecutive glimpses of the creature.

Answer 2

The earliest fossils are of of stromatolites, bacterial mats of marine organisms some 3.5 billion years old. The earliest multicellular organisms (metazoans) date back close to three quarters of a billion years.

By half a billion years ago fish dominated the oceans, but the land remained barren. Within 50 million years plants and insects made a foothold out of the water. The earliest amphibians ventured into this rich new, uninhabited niche around 350 million years ago. These amphibians are all remarkably similar to sarcopterygian lungfish of that era (the Devonian).

Sail backed reptiles populated the Permian. Their forms diversified into a wider variety of creatures during the Triassic. Dinosaurs dominated the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs. During this time, referred to as the Mesozoic, flowering plants (including grasses) were virtually unknown. The Cenozoic, the past 65 million years, is known as the age of the anthophyta (flower plants). It is also known as the age of mammals, as terrestrial forms widely diversified during this period also.

Fossils provide clear and abundant evidence for the gradual adaptation of species to new environments all across the globe. Darwin's theory is considered extremely sound, and forms the foundation of Biology. Indeed, famed biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky once explained that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

Answer 3

The ways in which the fossil evidence supports common descent can be summarized into three items:

1. Fossils show that there have existed lifeforms that are quite different from those that exist now, and that the lifeforms that exist now did not exist in those times.

2. The fossil record shows a series of diverging progressions. For instance, the fossil record shows the emergence of tetrapods as a subset of the earlier existing lobe-finned fish, and subsequently various diverging lines of tetrapods. This pattern of diverging progressions can be seen at almost any scale, from the family to the kingdom. Examples: the trilobites.

3. The fossil records provide specific morphological intermediates, also known as 'transitional fossils'. Note that it is not necessary to establish positive proof for a direct line of descent in order to classify a fossil as intermediate. The term refers to its morphology, not its presumed ancestry or descendants. Simply put: in absence of a way to test the genomes of fossil forms for their genetic relatedness, evolutionary theory can still predict that there must have been a shape that's "halfway" between the earlier form and the newer form supposedly derived from that earlier form. The finding of such a shape is therefore considered strong evidence for the correctness of a proposed phylogeny. Examples: Tiktaalik roseae, Archaeopteryx lithographica, Ardipithecus ramidus.

Answer 4

They tell you what lived in the past and when,