The 10 Oldest Fossils, and What They Say About Evolution
Wouldn't it be cool to be able to point at a fossil and know that it's the first, say, plant? Well... yeah! But it's not that easy! Scientists are always making new ...
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Wouldn't it be cool to be able to point at a fossil and know that it's the first, say, plant, or four-legged creature, or insect? But identifying the first anything in the fossil record is hard for a few reasons. First, the fossil record is patchy, because things only fossilize by chance, and we haven't found all the fossils there are to find; we could find a new oldest mammal or oldest insect tomorrow. Second, scientists like to group animals by their evolutionary relationships to each other. It's especially important for these groups to have a single ancestor. So, for example, the group "mammals" includes me, platypuses, and the ancestor we have in common, plus everything in between. When we find an ancient creature, it's hard to know for absolute ce...
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Wouldn't it be cool to be able to point at a fossil and know that it's the first, say, plant, or four-legged creature, or insect? But identifying the first anything in the fossil record is hard for a few reasons. First, the fossil record is patchy, because things only fossilize by chance, and we haven't found all the fossils there are to find; we could find a new oldest mammal or oldest insect tomorrow. Second, scientists like to group animals by their evolutionary relationships to each other. It's especially important for these groups to have a single ancestor. So, for example, the group "mammals" includes me, platypuses, and the ancestor we have in common, plus everything in between. When we find an ancient creature, it's hard to know for absolute ce...
