BIOLOGY 171 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Archean, Adaptive Radiation, Hadean
14 Mar 2019
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Document Summary
Lect 13: phylogenies and the fossil records are the major tool that biologists use to study the history of life, white clods of dover: primarily composed of fossilized phytoplankton mainly forams, contain thousands of cosines of forams. The fossil record is the only source of direct evidence of what prehistoric organisms looked like, where they lived, and when they lived. Fossils are necessary to calibrate phylogenies based on molecular data. They provide absolute dates for when a particular group originated. Fossils place evolutionary events in the context of earths dynamic environmental history. Requires two thing: quick burial (by sentiments) Lake bottoms or ocean bottoms are good places no decomposition (none of microbes that decompose organic matter are present) or slow decomposition ( very few microbes that decompose organic matter are present) Fossilized pollen (pollen grain have otter cover thats decay resistant)
