Fossil Tiktasalik Essay

The book begins by talking about bones and fossils. It explains how much scientist know about the past, and what type of fossil they were looking for. They had a fossil from 185 million years ago that was fully fish, and also a fossil from 165 years ago that was full amphibian. They were looking for a fossil in the middle to fill in the holes. A fossil in between these time periods would help us to understand how fish began to evolve to

Evolution is one of the most important factors when looking at history. A crucial moment in evolutionary process is speciation. Fortunately, we have the fossil record of a transitional species called tiktaalik. Tiktaalik was the transitional species of sea creature that would evolve into a land creature. It was found on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian arctic and is believed to be around 383 million years old (Class Lecture).

The author and his colleagues specifically chose to focus on 375 million year old rocks in their search for fossils because this was the time frame that provided fish that would be useful to study from. The 385 million year old rocks provided fish that look too similar to the ones we have now and the 365 million year old rocks have fossils that don’t resemble fish. The 375 million year old rocks, however, provide fossils that show the transition between fish and land living animals.

The magazine cover is Tiktaalik which is a very famous fossil that is the first to show aquatic creatures becoming more associated with being on land and adapting. Tiktaalik is the first cross between fish and tetrapod. The chapter speaks of all the necessities and struggles of uncovering fossils and the wonderful things discovered by them, such as the fact that Tiktaalik is over of the first creatures that showed similarities

Fossil discoveries are extremely significant to science and they help people better comprehend the world they live in. Without these discoveries science wouldn’t of grown like it has and people would not know much about the Earth. The fishapod and the dinomummy are two fossil discoveries that have made a gigantic impact on science. The fishapod helped fill the gap between land animals and water animals and the dinomummy proved that dinosaurs vertebrae are different than scientists have been placing them. However, the most important part is the preservation of these two ancient creatures. If they hadn’t of been preserved like they had, then they would never of been discovered and scientists wouldn’t get to learn from the remains of these creatures.

The author of Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin, discovered a “missing link”, a fossil he called Tiktaalik. Tiktaalik shows features that connect the evolutionary gap between fishes and land-living animals. Shubin demonstrates in the first four chapters how different branches of science prove that many organs within numerous creatures, ancient or living, are deeply related. For the following chapters he discusses the resemblances between the designs of bodies, skulls, hands, eyes and ears belonging to most of the beings of the animal kingdom.

Through her extensive work, Mary Anning’s discoveries provided factual evidence to support the theories of evolution and extinction, resulting to an increased understanding and in-depth knowledge of the structure and nature of extinct creatures from early pre-historic Earth. Scientists and the general public during this era were skeptical of the idea that organisms could be extinct and/or change structurally over the years through natural selection, however, the discovery of the bizarre fossils found by Mary Anning became evidence for these ideas. Through Mary Anning’s legacy, modern-day scientists have now discovered even more evidence that supports the ideas and theories that were suggested during the 1800’s. From result of the discoveries of Mary Anning, our current understanding of the history of life on Earth has developed drastically through her contribution to paleontology and the discoveries of fossil evidence for organisms of early

Mary Anning’s contribution to the development of the understanding of how reptiles contributed to evolution and to the understanding of fossils as extinct life forms was important.

The fossils in the lower silty layers were most likely formed below water by normal geological processes. The sea level rose covering the organisms and the layers of silt settled above them. In the upper sandy layers the fossils could have been formed above water by a sudden catastrophic event as a result of ongoing erosive processes. The conditions in which the fossils formed were likely a result of wave action which eroded the coast line until it was unstable. When the sea level receded there was a landslide covering the

In the science of paleontology, the history of life is studied. Paleontologists study fossils to learn the past ecologies, evolution, and the origins of humans. In order to understand the processes that have led to both the origination and destruction of organisms since life began, paleontologists incorporate both scientific knowledge and studies. Fossil findings are critically important for confirming predictions of evolution theory. Of the many discoveries that are made yearly to add depth to the understanding of evolution, an example is a recent discovery of a creature they named Tiktaalik. The Tiktaalik was uncovered to be a transitional animal between shallow-water fishes and limbed animals. The creature supports the idea that it emerged from both mammals and reptiles, suggesting that the two are related. These findings support prediction of evolution, contradicting the belief that God

The fossil record is evidence of evolution. Fossils are often fingerprints of evolution. They help scientists track how species evolved

Artists using Autobiographical Strategies include performance artist, comedian and maker of experimental theatre Bryony Kimmings, who breaks down the boundary between theatricalisation and performing the ‘self ‘within her work. Her 2015 performance of ‘Fake It 'Til You Make It’ is a theatre show attempting to release the taboo’s on speaking up about about clinical depression in men, and what it takes to be a ‘man’. This theatre show was devised after her real life partner and fellow performer Tim Grayburn, was found to be suffering with the condition himself, therefore by opening up about their experiences, she hopes a more open approach to men and depression will occur.

Analyzing the change in species over time utilizes the support from many disciplines of science in order to come to the most plausible explanation of said change. Geology more specifically, the fossil record is one such discipline that elicits profound insight on speciation. The fossil record is best described as life’s evolutionary story as it clearly shows sequential change in organisms throughout time by providing a starting point and in many cases transitional fossils as benchmarks for comparison. Sedimentary rock is crucial to this process as it is what cements organisms in time at their time of death. Sedimentary rock is common on Earth and formed by the weathering of older rocks. As this weathering occurs organisms that have died are buried in the sediments produced and preserved as

Fossils provide scientists with so much information. While paleontologists obviously have a primary interest in them, geologists and many other types of scientists learn from them as well. In 1947, a geologist named Reginald C. Sprigg found impressions of jellyfish near Australia. He wrote about his discovery in a paper and labeled them as Early Cambrian. This is a time when most groups of animals were “entering the scene”. Surprisingly, he later found that they were from even before this time. The particular ones he found were called “Ediacara biota”. Upon being studied by peers, they found, “The biota is now known to have existed from 600 to 540 million years ago”.

Fossils are the way scientists trace the way back to things that were once living but have died. They can be plant or animal bodies that have been partially or completely replaced by minerals. Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of living things. Molds and casts, which are two of the more common fossils, are copies of the shapes of ancient organisms. Petrified fossils are remains in which minerals replace all or part of an organism, Preserved, the process preserves the remains of organisms with little or no change, Carbon Film is an extremely thin coating of carbon on rock, and Trace fossils, which form when mud or sand hardens to stone where a footprint, trail, or burrow was. These are the different types of fossils that help scientists