The Importance of Australian Fossils

There are a lot of misconceptions while talking about fossils. Fossils are not limited to the remains of a once living thing, but rather the evidence of life that existed in the past. This means that a fossil can be a dinosaur footprint, the form of a body on dry mud, bones, etc.

Much proof of the evolution of organisms and change in the environment overall is shown through fossils. Some of the most unusual fossils found in Australia were disovered at Riversleigh. Animals such as the Lungfish show a strong development in animals as adaptations are cleary seen through, for example, the fact the the lungfish has developed, working lungs that it can us to breathe with on land unlike any other fish. The lungfish shows the tranformation of fish swimming only being ablt to live in water to fish adapting and being able to live on land whilst their body has become dry in the dry season. It shows the evolution from sealife to land life and shows inbetweens for the evolution of the creatures. There are also records of many ancestors of animals that walk the earth today. examples include primative koalas and wombats, a range of ancestral thylacines and platypus, aswe as rodents whch show the evolution of placental mammals. Many of these organisms evolved from what they were and adapted as the climate changed to suit more and became the animals we see today. many similar types of flora and fauna fossils as well as the formation of rocks are similar so due to the continental drift. the continental drift is the drifting apart of all continents from one full land mass into the locations they are currently in. all landmasses were original joined as one big land mass caled 'Pangaea', because all organisms existed on a single land mass aswell, similar fossils can be found, as can rock formations. some evidence of continental drift was that a man named Alfred Wegener went out and matched up the same rock ike a puzzle with different pieces from different parts of the world and they

a) Discuss current research into the evolutionary relationships between extinct species, including megafauna and extant Australian species.

The Pleistocene fossil deposits of the Naracoorte Fossil Cave are considered to be the largest of Australia, thereby meaning various megafauna fossils have been found there.

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.

It is important because it was almost a missing link to evolution. Therefore, it could have falsified evolution. The kind of rock’s we’re very old which was the best place to look for the fossil that was also very old.

Melbourne has a bedrock of Middle Paleozoic age which is included within the Devonian and Silurian periods (354-441 million years prior). These rocks are overlain in wide zones which also include much more youthful rocks, and were generally part of the Tertiary and Quaternary ages (2-65 mya). Rocks of Early Silurian (441 mya) were discovered to be the most established within the bedrock. Particular in the outcrops located in the north-east around Warrandyte (Anderson Creek Formation), and on the west side of Melbourne more specifically the Maribyrnong Valley around Keilor (Springfield Formation). Fossils found within these developments are very unique. Rocks located east of Keilor and south of Warrandyte were discovered to be more youthful, with different ages from Late Silurian (418 mya) in the Melbourne Formation (city region) to Early Devonian (384 mya) at the Humevale Formation (Lilydale).

Fossils provide a record of how organisms have evolved overtime, as they contain the remains of life trapped in sediment, ice or amber and preserved for over millions of years. Transitional fossils, which provide evidence for evolutionary change, have features that show the transition of characteristics of organisms from ancestors to descendents. An example is Archaeopteryx, which featured reptilian features, including teeth and skeleton, however, also had feathers and a wishbone sternum (used to attach muscles for flying). The evidence of the fossil shows the evolutionary transition between dinosaurs and

Second, the author thinks that business in selling the fossils, reduce the access of scientists to these fossils as a great source of scientific evidence, but the professor explains that all fossils need scientific evaluation by scientists for price marking, so all fossils are

Fossil Record are a good way to show the evolution process. They provide scientist with snapshots of the past that, when assembled, illustrate a panorama of

Introduction: Fossils are defined as a physical trace or evidence of life from a prior geological time period which has been preserved. Examples of fossils include burrows, indentations or bite marks, footprints or other impressions, coprolites, hard animal body parts such as bone, shells or horns or mineralized plant remains embedded in stratified rock.

Because dinosaurs are animals that lived millions of years ago, we are entirely dependent on the fossils that they have left behind for any understanding that we hope to gain. As any paleontologist will tell you, fossil hunting is difficult. There are no certainties, no guarantees. A certain amount of luck is as valuable as any scientific knowledge.

Fossil records play a big part in evolution. They show the remains of ancestors of animals, humans, etc. Fossils are bones, bones can show the change/ development in the creature of which it derived from. A lot of fossils look very similar to species today. This shows that a species can change/adapt

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

: Fossils are the remains or traces of ancient organisms which have been preserved. For example, a fossil can exist as skeletal remains or even as a footprint. Such organisms are subjected to a slow rate of decaying since they have been rapidly buried under conditions that facilitate this. It is common for fossils to occur as hard-bodied organisms as these are more resistant to environmental influences. Fossils are usually found embedded in rock. The layers of rock are of different age and makeup. Hence fossils found in one layer would vary in characteristics from those found in another layer. They can be observed and analyzed through visual as well as radiometric means so that the age and morphology can be determined. These features indicate