How do fossils give scientists clues about life millions of years ago?

Fossils give us information about how animals and plants lived in the past. Once people began to recognise that some fossils looked like living animals and plants, they gradually began to understand what they were. They realised they were actually the ancestors of today’s plants and animals.

What does the fossil evidence show about the environmental conditions millions of years ago?

The presence of fossils representative of these organisms can tell us a great deal about the environments of the past; what the climate was like, and what sorts of plants and animals inhabited the landscape. Some fossils provide a continuous record of environmental change.

What were some of the early explanations for fossils?

Early explanations were built around the idea of successive natural disasters or catastrophes that periodically destroyed life. After each catastrophe, life began anew.

How do fossils demonstrate change over time?

Fossils are important evidence for evolution because they show that life on earth was once different from life found on earth today. Paleontologists can determine the age of fossils using methods like radiometric dating and categorize them to determine the evolutionary relationships between organisms.

What do scientists do with fossils?

By studying fossils, evidence for evolution is revealed. Paleontologists are scientists who study fossils to learn about life in the past. Fossils allow these scientists to determine the features of extinct species. Paleontologists compare the features of species from different periods in history.

What evidence did you use to make your inference about fossils?

Scientific measurements such as radiometric dating use the natural radioactivity of certain elements found in rocks to help determine their age. Scientists also use direct evidence from observations of the rock layers themselves to find the relative age of rock layers.

What environmental condition most likely existed at the time a fossil formed?

Organism remains were buried with little oxygen. Which environmental condition most likely existed at the time a fossil formed? Water currents dragged the organism’s remains to their current location before fossilization. An investigator finds a seashell fossil in a sedimentary rock layer.

What are fossils short answer?

Fossils are the preserved remains, or traces of remains, of ancient organisms. Fossils are not the remains of the organism itself! A fossil can preserve an entire organism or just part of one. Bones, shells, feathers, and leaves can all become fossils.

How do organisms change over time?

Evolution is a process that results in changes in the genetic material of a population over time. Evolution reflects the adaptations of organisms to their changing environments and can result in altered genes, novel traits, and new species. An example of macroevolution is the evolution of a new species.

In what era are the oldest fossils found?

Paleozoic Era
The oldest is the Paleozoic Era, which means “ancient life.” Fossils from the Paleozoic Era include animals and plants that are entirely extinct (e.g., trilobites) or are rare (e.g., brachiopods) in the modern world.

How do we determine the age of fossils?

Relative dating is used to determine a fossils approximate age by comparing it to similar rocks and fossils of known ages. Absolute dating is used to determine a precise age of a fossil by using radiometric dating to measure the decay of isotopes, either within the fossil or more often the rocks associated with it.

How are fossils discovered?

Fossils are discovered in geologic sediments that were formed gradually over the course of millions of years, during the time in which the animals lived. The creationist argument: Many creationists would like scientists to discover a living, breathing dinosaur in some remote corner of, say, Guatemala.

How old are modern man’s fossils?

According to mainstream science, these fossils have been formed over a time span of 3.5 billion years. In this view on history it is believed that modern man “only” evolved some 500,000 years ago. This idea of millions of years poses problems for us Christians.

Why are billions of years necessary for the formation of fossils?

These billions of years are supposed to be necessary for the formation of a thick layer of strata with fossils. Fossils are petrified remnants of plants and animals that lived in the past. Many different types of fossils exist in the earth’s layers.

Does the Bible say that fossils exist?

The existence of fossils is explained by the world-wide flood in Genesis. As for the existence of fossils that are “millions of years old”, the dating methods implied are in question by the scientific Christian community.