What does fossil evidence show about evolution?

Answer 1

Good lord, aren't there any serious answers to this question?

The fossil evidence shows that life long ago was very different than it is today. It shows us that there were creatures alive that no longer exists. So, the question of course is, what happened to these creatures?

Well, as a starting place, we look at the age of the fossil. The age is determined from several different factors, such as what layer of rock the fossil is found in, and what other fossils are near it. Also of note are those fossils that are not present in the same layer. For instance, one doesn't find the fossil of a giant sloth with that of a triceratops. The layers that each of these creatures is in are distinct and distant from each other in the ground. This means that the triceratops lived before the giant sloth. Trilobites are only found in even lower layers than they are. In this way, we can start getting an idea, but this isn't really enough evidence to build an entire time line on. So, we use other tools to check the age, such as radiometric dating. It is through the convergence of this evidence that we can figure out the approxiamate age of a fossil (I won't explain radiometric dating here, but feel free to IM me if you want to know more).

When we begin to look at these fossils, we begin to notice several things. Many fossils from different layers share some traits and not others. For instance, we find certain bone structures in some species of dinosaurs that are only today found in birds. We find the bones of an animal that lived on land that shares many traits with, of all things, whales. In fact, if we look at modern whales, we see that they do possess all of the bones that constitute a leg, but these structures are now buried deep inside the animal.

This is what the fossil evidence shows about evolution. That there has been life for some time on this planet and that it has been changing. And that's all evolution is. Change over time.

Answer 2

The fossil record shows:
A progression of marine life, starting from single cells and tending towards increased complexity.
A rapid exansion in the varities of life forms, 550 million years ago, the Cambrian explosion, which may be a result of "homeobox" genes.
The start of life on land, probably enabled by a sufficient ozone layer, starting about 470 million years ago.
Fish came 400 million years ago.
Amphians and reptiles moved onto land 350 million years ago.
By 250 million years ago, the first mammals and dinosaurs appeared. Mammals remained a minor footnote while dinosaurs predominated until 65 million years ago, when a meteor struck off the Yucatan Peninsula.
About 55 million years ago a small arborial animal with grasping toes began the line that resulted in monkeys and apes including man.

Answer 3

There is no fossil evidence for evolution. Fossils are formed by quickly immersing a animal or plant in a medium that Will protect it from decay and scavengers. Obviously, the fossils were no buried by layers that were put down over thousands or millions of years. They were buried in a catastrophic event.

All of the fossils found to day represent plants or animals, some of which are extince. There are no transitional forms. People have been searching for 150 years for transitional forms, and they will continue to search, but they don't exist.

Answer 4

it is vague and incomplete. a lot of assumptions are made.