fossil records
Petrified life's history
The fossil record is the total body of fossils discovered in Earth's rock layers, documenting the history of life over billions of years.
Scientists study the fossil record to trace evolution, identify extinct species, and date geological periods.
Gaps in the fossil record reflect incomplete preservation rather than missing evolutionary links: The fossil record shows dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago.
- prehistoricBefore documented civilization
- deep timeImmense spans of Earth's history
- Burgess ShaleCambrian lagerstätte in Canada
- La Brea Tar PitsNatural asphalt fossil site
- paleontologyStudy of ancient organisms
amber · Cambrian explosion · ice age · radiometric dating · sedimentary layers · rock layers · extinction · coprolites · phylogenetics · mass extinction · petrified · ancient ecosystems · natural history · evolutionary tree · dig · evolution · epoch · sediment
- geoscience datacore samples, bathymetry, terrain maps, cross sections, volcanic activity
- evolutionevolution, natural selection, mutation, adaptation, speciation
- natural historynatural history, natural history museum, naturalist, naturalists, natural philosophers
- fossilsdinosaur bones, ammonite, amber, ammonites, brachiopod
- Earth historyice age, geological time, extinction, eons, epochs
- paleontologydinosaurs, paleontology, dinosaur bones, mammoth, dinosaur
fossil recordsliving organisms
fossil, records, fossils, fossilized, fossilize, fossilization, fossilizing, record-keeping, fossil record