Understanding what we can learn from fossils.
EMMET: Greetings! Emmet her and this is my fossil record, a rock record of all my evolutionary ancestors stretching back billions of years.
I’ve found fossils of all these guys. They show how the earth, and everything that’s lived on it has changed over time.
For example, this fella. He once lived in a nice, warm tropical sea, and when he died his body become fossilised in rock. Then, over millions of years, the whole environment changed.
Brrr. That means we can find fossils in surprising places, like sea creatures at the top of mountains!
Fossils show us some of the incredible animals and plants that have inhabited our planet, but most of these species have died out or become extinct, like our pool old friends the dinosaurs.
Oh! It seems I’ve out stayed my welcome!
That was incredible! Oh, did you see that! Ha ha!
The fossil record
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of a dead organism. They provide evidence for how living things and the environment have changed over time.
Fossils have been found in rocks of all ages, stretching back billions of years. However, most of the species found in the fossil record have died out or become extinct.
Fossils don’t just show how living things have changed; they can also help us understand how the Earth has changed.
Over millions of years the Earth’s surface shifts and changes. For example, rocks that once formed the seafloor might be forced up to form a mountain range. This means that you can sometimes find the fossils of sea creatures at the peak of a mountain.
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