Word: fossilizing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Unfortunately, the fossil record is incomplete, as Charles Darwin himself realized. He surely would have been delighted to see the riveting discoveries made by paleontologists in the subsequent century and a half. These new fossils eloquently reinforce his conviction that "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." The iconic winged Archaeopteryx, as well as newly described feathered fossils from China, show the transition from dinosaurs to their only living descendants, birds. Fossil whales with limbs demonstrate the evolutionary steps some mammals took to return...
...there is new and powerful evidence in Tiktaalik for the steps that backboned animals took to crawl out of the sea in the first place. Many who reject evolution in favor of divine creation claim that the fossil record doesn't contain the so-called transitional species anticipated by Darwin's theory. This ancient, walking fish is yet more evidence that such an argument is simply wrong; all sorts of missing links preserved in exquisite detail have been and will be discovered...
Indeed, evolutionary theory shapes both our health and our future. As Darwin noted, the survival of each species depends on how well it fits into changing environments. We know that ecosystems are changing on a global scale. As documented by the fossil record, some species in the past thrived under new conditions, while others, ill adapted to change, went extinct. Who will be the winners in the hot, deforested, carbon dioxide-- enveloped world of the future? It won't necessarily...
...Harvard paleontologist has discovered a fossil that represents evidence for the evolutionary transition of fish from water to land—a find some experts are calling an evolutionary missing link...
...fossil, called Tiktaalik roseae, was found in rocks from the Devonian Age, which date back 375 million years. The organism’s gills identify it as a fish, but it lacks the piscatorial characteristic of a neck that is connected to the shoulder girdle, Jenkins said. The fish’s front fin contains identifiable wrist bones and features that resemble fingers, he added...