Fossils as Evidence for Evolution Flashcards

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What is a fossil?

A fossil is the preserved remains or traces of a plant or animal that lived a long time ago.

Most fossils form when dead plants or animals are buried in sediment, and over time the sediment turns into rock.

The fossil record is all the fossils that have been found, arranged in order of their age to show how life has changed over time.

Fossils show that organisms from the past are often different from modern ones, which suggests species have changed over millions of years.

New rock layers form on top of older ones, so fossils in deeper layers are usually older than those above them.

The fossil record shows simpler organisms in older rocks and more complex organisms in newer rocks, suggesting gradual change over time.

A transitional fossil has features between two different groups, showing a possible step in evolution from one type of organism to another.

Soft-bodied organisms decay quickly and do not have hard parts like bones or shells, so they are less likely to form fossils.

Many organisms never fossilised, some fossils have been destroyed by heat and pressure in the Earth, and we have not found all the fossils yet.

Some fossils are found in older rocks but not in younger rocks or in living species, which shows those organisms have died out.

They compare where the fossil sits in the rock layers: deeper layers are older and shallower layers are younger.

Fossils of different species can show similar structures, which suggests they evolved from an earlier shared ancestor.