what does it mean when inconsistencies are found in the fossil record?

Question

plz help i reallly need the answer thanks!

Answer 1

One of two things:

There are levels "missing", so a proper tracking is not there

OR

Earlier fossils are found in later layers, so there is no explanation as to how they got there

Answer 2

There is no evidence against human evolution. And as the chap above says, what fossil record inconsistencies are you talking about? There are gaps in the fossil record but otherwise the evidence is sound and consistent. Human evolution has been demonstrated within recorded history. There is a completely unexplained event in 13th century Europe where the skulls of men suddenly changed in shape and then reverted back to normal a century later. Why this happened is not known, but it demonstrates humans can evolve even over very short timespans. I cannot conceive of anything that would count as evidence against human evolution save a skeleton the same as a modern human, reliably dated to an impossibly remote date in history.

Answer 3

Some things contradict other things. Homo erectus is the biggest inconsistency in the fossil record for Hominids. In anthropology, there are two opposing groups over the debate on where H. erectus belongs: the lumpers and the splitters. I've heard of huge fights at the American Anthropological Association's annual meeting because of the inconsistencies.

Answer 4

That it's an opportunity to learn more about past life and it's development.

Oftentimes, when we find something that is not expected, it helps us learn and know more about a subject.

Deeganta D: Fossils are NOT dated by radiocarbon. For most fossils, they are too old (C-14 is only good back about 50,00 years), but mostly fossils do not have a lot (if any) of their original organic material, so there is no carbon to date.

Answer 5

That's like saying 'what does it mean when the weather doesn't agree with the forecast?'

It just means that we don't understand the weather well enough yet!

There is no such thing as an 'inconsistency' in the fossil record. There are only 'apparent inconsistencies', and the problem then is to work out what really happened.

Answer 6

It means people recorded important information that means nothing. Deciphering which info is good vs bad is the key. Like, I found a T-rex fossil in my garden this spring, but it looked different than the one I found three years earlier. I know jack about T-rex fossils, so the best I could do was call one of them a yeti footprint. You have to do what you have to do, in order to satisfy the science community. Personally, I'm still confident they're both T-rex fossils.

Answer 7

Hi!,

Well, fossils are recorded using the carbon dating system, where in the Carbon isomer 14 is calculated. The inconsistencies that you are asking about happens sometimes especially in the very old fossils like the ones from the neanderthal or the cromagnon age, since carbon 14 is as an element from the wide range that exists on earth, it shows the similar effects that other elements like natural carbon or oxygen shows, that is reactivity, unlike the neutral elements like argon etc, which can exist in their native state, the carbon in the oldest fossils, sometimes react to the environment, especially in a situation, where the fossil has been subjected to extreme changes in the micro environment, in these cases, the corbon content drastically changes bringing in an inconsistency in its reading.

Hope this helps, for more info, you can also visit, wikipedia.org, they have a lot of information of fossil recording and problems related to it.

Hope this answer helps you,

Answer 8

You know what an inconsistency is well apply that to the fossil record. Something is not as expected or should be. . .perhaps out of place. . .

Answer 9

I think it means that the paleontologists either have an incomplete data format, or they're really don't know what to make of the data they do have!! Remember the age old question: which came first: the chicken, or the egg?

Answer 10

It means that we don't have a complete fossil record and often it mean we've discovered a previously unknown species of beast.