What is fossil evidence?

Answer 1

Fossil evidence is either animal bones that have been fossilized (calcium replaced with rock, allowing the form of the bone to last millions of years) or mud imprints of animals (or their tracks) and plants that have been preserved the same way in rock.

Answer 2

It is evidence from fossilized remains of organisms (usually the hard tissue like bones, which fossilizes better).

This can include things like:

1. The order of fossils in rock layers - For example, if a certain organism A always appears in a lower layer than organism B, then this is evidence that A is older than B.

2. The dating of fossils - This can be using any of a number of radiometric dating (but NOT carbon-dating ... a lot of people seem to misunderstand that).

3. Morphological comparisons - Fossils can show the progression of a certain feature (the size of the brain can be inferred from the size of the cranium of the skull; the type of teeth can give clues to what the organism ate; the dimensions of the pelvis give an indication of the gender of a specimen; the structure of joints indicates how an animal stood or walked).

4. The geographical location - In other words, where on the planet fossils of a species are found. This can give evidence of where the organism first appeared; what organisms were related to other organisms in the same region. Or it can be evidence of migration and expansion of the range of an animal from the place where it first appeared. E.g. not only are most marsupials only found on Australia, but fossilized marsupials as well ... evidence that the marsupial branch of mammals evolved in an isolated region.

Answer 3

Me.