Diversity In The Fossil Record By: Ashley Moore-Rivera

How are fossils formed??  Amber  Permineralization  Freezing  Drying  Asphalt  Carbonization

Examples of fossils!  Asphalt  Amber  Carbonization  Permineralization

Many people think of fossils as only dinosaur bones but there are many more!!!  Bones  Teeth  Hard shells  Impressions of plants or animals  Footprints  Hair  Can you think of any other types of fossils?

Variety of fossils!  Tyrannasaurus teeth  Burrow  Alethopteris fern impression  Human footprint from 20,000 years ago

Coprolite is a poop fossil!  Check out the size of that coprolite…WOW!!

Evidence in the fossil record  Transitional fossils –A transitional fossil is any fossil which gives us information about a transition from one species to another  Vestigial structures –A structure that is no longer used or have greatly decreased in importance.

Transitional fossil in the fossil record snake (Haasiophis terrasanctus) -- a snake with legs.

Snakes with Legs…Why??  Vestigial legs are a clue that snakes descended from lizards. Over 100 million years ago, some lizards happened to be born with smaller legs, which, in certain environments, helped them move about unencumbered.

Transitional fossil in the fossil record  Whale: Ambulocetus natans means swimming whale who walks.

Whales don’t walk they swim?  The vestigial pelvis and femur bone found in modern day whales is evidence that the whale’s ancestors were land mammals.

How does the diversity in the fossil record help scientist? The geological time scale

Geological Time Scale  To tell the age of most layered rocks, scientists study the fossils the rocks were found in. Fossils give evidence that helps determine what happened in history and when it happened.

Feathered dinosaurs  ~167 million years ago  ~ million years ago

Evidence from the fossil record: Extinct Organisms  Giant Sloths  Extinct ~1550 AD  Trilobites  Extinct ~250 million years ago

Oldest microfossil found ~3.6 billion years old  William Schopf (UCLA)  Microfossil of cyanobacteria- like organism  Found from the Apex Chert in the Warrwoona group which are mountains in western Australia

First Mulitcellular Fossil: Eukaryotes  First known fossils ~1.5 Bya  Diversified rapidly  First multicellular fossils ~ 640 Mya  Most of these were soft-bodied

Ediacaran fossils million years ago  First morphologically complex (shape, structure, color, pattern ect…) multicellular organisms

Life during the Cambrian epoch (from the Burgess Shale ~540 mya)

Anomalocaris sketch & Anomalocaris fossil

Wiwaxia sketch & Wiwaxia fossil

Hallucigenia sketch & Hallucigenia fossil

Any Questions?

Work/Picture Cited Page  T-rex teeth:   Fern impression:  // cordaites.php&usg=__vTAjwY6ykshkLZ9XsGc0I2sPidU=&h=109&w=147&sz=7&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=vBewXkFzORB1 KM:&tbnh=70&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplant%2Bimpression%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den // cordaites.php&usg=__vTAjwY6ykshkLZ9XsGc0I2sPidU=&h=109&w=147&sz=7&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=vBewXkFzORB1 KM:&tbnh=70&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplant%2Bimpression%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den // cordaites.php&usg=__vTAjwY6ykshkLZ9XsGc0I2sPidU=&h=109&w=147&sz=7&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=vBewXkFzORB1 KM:&tbnh=70&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplant%2Bimpression%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den  Human footprint:  20footprint.jpg&imgrefurl= bcWeTbHwI4ohjs=&h=300&w=450&sz=39&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=5SGh9lJt7Vn64M:&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/ima ges%3Fq%3Dfootprint%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN 20footprint.jpg&imgrefurl= bcWeTbHwI4ohjs=&h=300&w=450&sz=39&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=5SGh9lJt7Vn64M:&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/ima ges%3Fq%3Dfootprint%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN 20footprint.jpg&imgrefurl= bcWeTbHwI4ohjs=&h=300&w=450&sz=39&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=5SGh9lJt7Vn64M:&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/ima ges%3Fq%3Dfootprint%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN  Coprolite fossil:   Info for how fossils are formed:   Picture for how fossils are formed slide:   Picture for burrow and examples of fossils slide:  rat.com/images/Fossils%2520Preservation/burrow.jpg&imgrefurl= rat.com/Pages/FossilPreservation.html&usg=__I0UVb5oDMvpTOlrEXoVql0QOsBs=&h=274&w=236&sz=16&hl=en&start =44&tbnid=FJwH2cnOOhrhkM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dburrow%2Bfossils%26start%3D42%26g bv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN rat.com/images/Fossils%2520Preservation/burrow.jpg&imgrefurl= rat.com/Pages/FossilPreservation.html&usg=__I0UVb5oDMvpTOlrEXoVql0QOsBs=&h=274&w=236&sz=16&hl=en&start =44&tbnid=FJwH2cnOOhrhkM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dburrow%2Bfossils%26start%3D42%26g bv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN rat.com/images/Fossils%2520Preservation/burrow.jpg&imgrefurl= rat.com/Pages/FossilPreservation.html&usg=__I0UVb5oDMvpTOlrEXoVql0QOsBs=&h=274&w=236&sz=16&hl=en&start =44&tbnid=FJwH2cnOOhrhkM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dburrow%2Bfossils%26start%3D42%26g bv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN  Picture for petrified wood:   Picture for asphalt:   Picture of snake with legs:   Picture of Whale fossil  ton-cambridge.org/fellows/vedantam/publications/ /eden_and_evolution/img/6.jpg ton-cambridge.org/fellows/vedantam/publications/ /eden_and_evolution/img/6.jpg ton-cambridge.org/fellows/vedantam/publications/ /eden_and_evolution/img/6.jpg  Picture for last slide:   T-rex teeth:   Fern impression:  // cordaites.php&usg=__vTAjwY6ykshkLZ9XsGc0I2sPidU=&h=109&w=147&sz=7&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=vBewXkFzORB1 KM:&tbnh=70&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplant%2Bimpression%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den // cordaites.php&usg=__vTAjwY6ykshkLZ9XsGc0I2sPidU=&h=109&w=147&sz=7&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=vBewXkFzORB1 KM:&tbnh=70&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplant%2Bimpression%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den // cordaites.php&usg=__vTAjwY6ykshkLZ9XsGc0I2sPidU=&h=109&w=147&sz=7&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=vBewXkFzORB1 KM:&tbnh=70&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplant%2Bimpression%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den  Human footprint:  20footprint.jpg&imgrefurl= bcWeTbHwI4ohjs=&h=300&w=450&sz=39&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=5SGh9lJt7Vn64M:&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/ima ges%3Fq%3Dfootprint%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN 20footprint.jpg&imgrefurl= bcWeTbHwI4ohjs=&h=300&w=450&sz=39&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=5SGh9lJt7Vn64M:&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/ima ges%3Fq%3Dfootprint%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN 20footprint.jpg&imgrefurl= bcWeTbHwI4ohjs=&h=300&w=450&sz=39&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=5SGh9lJt7Vn64M:&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/ima ges%3Fq%3Dfootprint%2Bfossil%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN  Coprolite fossil:   Info for how fossils are formed:   Picture for how fossils are formed slide:   Picture for burrow and examples of fossils slide:  rat.com/images/Fossils%2520Preservation/burrow.jpg&imgrefurl= rat.com/Pages/FossilPreservation.html&usg=__I0UVb5oDMvpTOlrEXoVql0QOsBs=&h=274&w=236&sz=16&hl=en&start =44&tbnid=FJwH2cnOOhrhkM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dburrow%2Bfossils%26start%3D42%26g bv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN rat.com/images/Fossils%2520Preservation/burrow.jpg&imgrefurl= rat.com/Pages/FossilPreservation.html&usg=__I0UVb5oDMvpTOlrEXoVql0QOsBs=&h=274&w=236&sz=16&hl=en&start =44&tbnid=FJwH2cnOOhrhkM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dburrow%2Bfossils%26start%3D42%26g bv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN rat.com/images/Fossils%2520Preservation/burrow.jpg&imgrefurl= rat.com/Pages/FossilPreservation.html&usg=__I0UVb5oDMvpTOlrEXoVql0QOsBs=&h=274&w=236&sz=16&hl=en&start =44&tbnid=FJwH2cnOOhrhkM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dburrow%2Bfossils%26start%3D42%26g bv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN  Picture for petrified wood:   Picture for asphalt:   Picture of snake with legs:   Picture of Whale fossil  ton-cambridge.org/fellows/vedantam/publications/ /eden_and_evolution/img/6.jpg ton-cambridge.org/fellows/vedantam/publications/ /eden_and_evolution/img/6.jpg ton-cambridge.org/fellows/vedantam/publications/ /eden_and_evolution/img/6.jpg  Picture for last slide: 