Evolution is the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth (Google). Scientists have many evidences to prove Evolution. One of these evidences is rock layers. Rock layers are beds of sedimentary rock, consisting of one type of matter, and can usually have fossils found in them. Rock layers are an evidence of evolution because they show the development of life through fossils, show how rock layers relates to evolution, and can explain why the continent Pangea split into the continents we have today.
Rock layers are like a portal through time, they show how animals looked in past and evolved through time. In these layers we see fossils, “petrified” and “preserved” forms of old organisms (Google). Scientists have seen and uncovered many different fossils and some have looked similar but from different depths in the layers. Scientists have found fossils of fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, today’s mammals, and dinosaurs. They have grouped these fossils into three periods based on how deep in the earth they were found. These periods are the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic periods. The Paleozoic period has the fossils that are the farthest down in the layer. These fossils include fish, amphibians, and reptiles. The Mesozoic period is contains all things dinosaur and is in between the Paleozoic and Cenozoic periods. Finally, the Cenozoic period contains the fossils of Mammals, birds, and today’s mammals, such as humans.
Over millions of years sediments keep being deposited over old layers of rock forming new layers horizontality (Prehistoric Planet). This is known as the Law of Original Horizontality. T...
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...s from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic periods show proof of how animals have gone through evolution and why certain fossils look very similar. The Law of Original Horizontality and the Law of Superposition both express true when looking at modern rock layers today. The Law of Original Horizontality happens when sediments are constantly deposited over old layers of rock forming new layers over millions of years, while the Law of Superposition is the law that older rock layers lie beneath the newer layers. Also, Pangea and Panthalassa are now the seven continents and four oceans of the world today as a result of Continental Drift. All things considered, Rock layers are therefore evidence of Evolution for, rock layers holds proof of evolving animals seen through fossils, the plates in the earth separated Pangea, and the relation of evolution and rock layers.
Australopithecus afarensis who existed 3.5 million years ago and a 4.4 million year old skeleton of an Ardipithecus ramidus are the closest science has come to discovering the human lineage. Shattered Ancestry an article written by Katherine Harmon discusses the remains of two hominids found within Ethiopia. These skeletal remains have created a huge controversy within the topic of evolution questioning many assumptions that have been made referencing the human lineage. The skeleton of the Australopithecus afarensis was named Lucy and was discovered in 1974. The evidence of her walking upright on her two feet essentially guaranteed her a spot in the human lineage line. Lucy was a chimplike ape that was said to walk upright making scientists believe the human ancestry was simple. The complete skeleton found in Ethiopia of an Ardipithecus ramidus named Ardi completely changed all assumptions made from scientists about the complexity of the human lineage. These remains have encouraged researches that the human line is not the only lineage to have evolved but the chimpanzee line has undergone drastic changes as well. There are many traits that researchers have always directly linked to the human lineage however since these discoveries occurred researchers are reconsidering. The recent discoveries that have shattered what has always suggested what linked a species to the human lineage have changed the certainty of whether it is possible to confidently identify the human’s last common ancestor. Majority of scientist had forgotten that there would have been many hominid species living together at one time. New theories have been suggested since scientists revealed that the foot of a hominid found called the Burtele site was found ju...
The formation and breakup of continents, mountains, volcanic activity, changes in climate and sea level affected the course of evolution.. Paleozoic Era was restricted to the oceans. Organisms evolved a lot crating the “Cambrian Explosion”.
Natural selection is a theory suggesting that some genetic traits will be more common than another trait in a given environment in which the organisms live in. Natural selection is a slow and gradual process which will happen in the matter of generations of the species. The traits become less or more common depending on the environmental circumstances, in other words, selection pressure.
William Paley went on to use the analogy of a watch, he asked us to
The next period was the Devonian around 408 - 360 million years ago and the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 - 299 million years ago and after the second extinction. this was divided in to two subsystems the Pennsylvanian and the Mississippian which were subdivided to stages. (Waggoner, 1996) This was a time of the first appearance of amphibians, bony fish, sharks and the diversity of terrestrial life. Also came the beginning of reptiles, the diversity of amphibians, conifers and the first coal beds. (Klappenbach,N/A,)
We are who we are because of a biological process called natural selection. The theory of biological evolution by natural selection first exposed by Charles Darwin (1859) is probably the most revolutionary idea in the history of human thought. Surprisingly, despite the crucial importance for the understanding of ourselves as a species and other biological species, few men actually understand or even know, the natural mechanism that created us. Never a seemingly simple concept was so difficult to understand. It 's like natural selection, creating an intelligent species like ours, while hiding the elemental biological rationale behind its operation. But I suspect that the ultimate reason that natural selection is not part
There is much evidence of population evolution. Some evidence they found of population evolution are fossils. Fossils are historical records. Over millions of years ago land eroded and was carried away by rivers and ended up in the bottoms of oceans compressing older deposits into the rock. Dead organisms settled along the
regions of the earth can indicate which rock layer is older than the other. Trilobite fossils
Additionally, the principle of original horizontality establishes that when rock layers are flat, they have not been disturbed and therefore are in their original horizontal sequence. Using the Grand Canyon as an example, scientists recognize that layers still have their original horizontality because they have not been folded and thus they have not experienced significant crustal disturbances.
In order for a species to survive, its population has to evolve. Evolution is the process of gradual change driven by natural selection to improve survival. Evolution is the explanation of how life got to its current state. Before the idea of evolution, the Bible gave the explanation of how things came to be, the Theory of Creation. Charles Darwin is credited for developing the theory of evolution.
With its abundance of genera, the Burgess Shale is one of the world’s most important fossil fields. It’s discovery in 1909 led to over 100 years of paleontological study in the Canadian Rockies, a majority of which has been carried out in two quarries known as the Walcott and Raymond quarries (Hagadorn, 2002). Though he was originally in search of trilobites in the Burgess Shale Formation, paleontologist Charles Walcott also discovered a diverse group of soft- and hard-bodied fossils, from algae and sponges to chordates and cirripeds (Hagadorn, 2002). Soft-bodied fossils are incredibly rare due to their delicate structure and susceptibility to decay, so it is hard-bodied fossils that more regularly occur in fossil findings. However over 75,000 soft-bodied specimens have been found in the Burgess Shale formation (Hagadorn, 2002). These specimens are preserved in layers of shale formed from deposits of fine mud. One of the most significant species discovered is the Pikaia gracilens. Believed to be an early chordate, the Pikaia gracilens existed very close to the beginning of the evolutionary path that ultimately lead to humans (McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia, 2006).
Genetic variations are the differences in individuals within a population. Variations are the visual differences everyone has caused by random changes in our DNA. Mutations are the most primary source of variation that happens in every type of life form. Mutations are very common and happen all the time. They are mistakes that occur during the process of replicating the DNA. Mutations include skipping, inserting, deleting, duplicating, copying incorrectly, or moving huge chunks of DNA. Mutations that occur during fertilization are passed down to the offspring. They occur at random and can change the function of a protein. A mutation that has happened to humans is that we have different colored skin. We came from our ancient African ancestors, as they migrated humans evolved. Natured helped us mutate and get lighter skin to help us survive with the amount of light there was in our environment. There are many disadvantages and advantages to genetic mutations.
Many kinds of cumulative change through time have been described by the term "evolution," and the term is used in astronomy, geology, biology, anthropology, and other sciences. This document focuses o...
The Jurassic period is known as one of the most interesting periods of time in earth’s history, mainly for the awe-inspiring creatures many of which have gone extinct, the most remarkable being the dinosaurs. Life in the ocean during this time was also extremely diversified and amazing for the creatures it beheld. The Jurassic occurred from 199.6 to 145.5 million years ago, following the Triassic Period and preceding the Cretaceous Period within the Mesozoic Era. The supercontinent of Pangea began to drift apart during this time. Right before the Jurassic period began, a major extinction event occurred wiping out much of the life on earth. The events that unfolded afterwards gave life to a new planet.
Without evolution, and the constant ever changing environment, the complexity of living organisms would not be as it is. Evolution is defined as a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations (8).Scientists believe in the theory of evolution. This belief is based on scientific evidence that corroborates the theory of evolution. In Figure 1 the pictures of the skulls depict the sequence of the evolution of Homo-sapiens. As the figure shows, man has evolved from our common ancestor that is shared by homo-sapiens. The change of diet of homo-sapiens over time has thought to contribute to the change in jaw structure and overall skull shape.