Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The earliest evidence for life on Earth includes: 3.8 billion-year-old biogenic hematite in a banded iron formation of the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in Canada; [30] graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks in western Greenland; [31] and microbial mat fossils in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone in Western Australia.
Fossil material of Quaestio was discovered in Southern Australia in 2024, from the Ediacara Member at Nilpena Ediacara National Park. [1] At least four trace fossils were discovered as well, some a few centimeters behind the death-mask of the maker, and some without their maker present, showing that the animal was capable of movement, which direction it moved and its anterior and posterior ...
The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and extinct organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago (abbreviated as Ga, for gigaannum) and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 Ga. [1] [2] [3] The similarities among all known present-day species indicate that they have diverged through the ...
They first appeared in the fossil record around 66 million years ago, soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that eliminated about three-quarters of plant and animal species on Earth, including most dinosaurs. [25] [26] One of the last Plesiadapiformes is Carpolestes simpsoni, having grasping digits but not forward-facing eyes.
4] [5] This was after the Earth had thawed from the Cryogenian period's extensive glaciation. This biota largely disappeared with the rapid increase in biodiversity known as the Cambrian explosion. Most of the currently existing body plans of animals first appeared in the fossil record of the Cambrian rather than the Ediacaran. For ...
Acanthostega (meaning "spiny roof" in Ancient Greek) is an extinct genus of stem-tetrapod, among the first vertebrate animals to have recognizable limbs.It appeared in the late Devonian period (Famennian age) about 365 million years ago, and was anatomically intermediate between lobe-finned fishes and those that were fully capable of coming onto land.
The first fossil records of vascular plants, that is, land plants with tissues that carry water and food, appeared in the second half of the Silurian Period. [38] The earliest-known representatives of this group are Cooksonia. Most of the sediments containing Cooksonia are marine in nature. Preferred habitats were likely along rivers and streams.
Hylonomus (/ h aɪ ˈ l ɒ n əm ə s /; hylo-"forest" + nomos "dweller") [2] is an extinct genus of reptile that lived during the Bashkirian stage of the Late Carboniferous.It is the earliest known crown group amniote and the oldest known unquestionable reptile, with the only known species being Hylonomus lyelli.