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A living fossil is an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living fossils commonly are of species-poor lineages, but they need not be.
A transitional fossil is any fossilized remains of a life form that exhibits traits common to both an ancestral group and its derived descendant group. [1] This is especially important where the descendant group is sharply differentiated by gross anatomy and mode of living from the ancestral group.
Paleontology is the study of past life based on fossil records and their relations to different geologic time periods. For fossilization to take place, the traces and remains of organisms must be quickly buried so that weathering and decomposition do not occur. Skeletal structures or other hard parts of the organisms are the most commonly ...
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all life on Earth.
The simplest definition of "paleontology" is "the study of ancient life". [5] The field seeks information about several aspects of past organisms: "their identity and origin, their environment and evolution, and what they can tell us about the Earth's organic and inorganic past".
An intriguing arthropod ancestor. The 3D scans revealed two nearly complete specimens of Arthropleura that lived 300 million years ago. Both fossilized animals still had most of their legs, and ...
A high school student made an incredible discovery in her own backyard: A 34-million-year-old whale skull. Sixteen-year-old Lindsey Stallworth and her biology teacher, Andrew Gentry, found small ...
Fossils of microbes, sea sponges, insects, sharks, early amphibians and mammals have been discovered in the rocks around the state, representing over 1 billion years of life on Earth.