What Can Fossils Tell Us About How Living Things Have Changed Over Time?

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WHAT CAN FOSSILS TELL US ABOUT HOW LIVING THINGS HAVE CHANGED OVER TIME? Photo: Jelle The first evidence for life on Earth suggests it began around 3.8 billion years ago Our own species Homo sapiens evolved around 200,000 years ago. So we humans have been around for only 0.004% of the Earth’s history! Photo: Kevin Gill Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of once living animals and plants Photo: Liza Body fossils are the preserved remains of the actual body parts of an animal or plant Photo: Laurence Ireland Trace fossils record the ancient activity of an animal Photo: James St. John These are fossilised poos (coprolites)! Photo: Oregon State University Ancient Spider Attack! This is the only fossil ever discovered that shows a spider attacking prey in its web. Preserved in amber, it’s about 100 million years old. The reconstructed skeleton of a woolly mammoth. It was preserved in ice for millions of years Photo: Chris Bewick Fossilised (Petrified) Wood Photo: James St. John Photo: Elvert Barnes These fossils are around 200 million years old. You can still see the original concentric ring structure of the wood Photo: CameliaTWU Fossil Moulds A Fossil Cast Photo: fine_plan A Body Fossil: Dinosaur Bone in Sedimentary Rocks, Colorado, USA Photo: James St. John This is a hip bone of a sauropod Sauropod Dinosaur: Diplodocus Photo: Valdiney Pimenta Sauropods had huge bodies, walked on four legs and had very long tails and necks A Trace Fossil: Sauropod Dinosaur Footprint Bulge, Colorado, USA Photo: James St. John Reconstruction of Sauropod Dinosaurs Making Footprints in Sand Photo: James St. John Fossilised Tree Squirrel, Oregon Photo: Ian Sane Photo: Bureau of Land Management The anatomy is nearly identical to living tree squirrels, showing that they have changed very little The Evolution of The Horse Photo: Elesapiens Fossils show that over 60 million years the horse evolved from a dog-sized creature living in rainforests into an animal adapted to living on the plains, standing up to 2 metres high Ammonites How you ever found one of these on a beach? Photo: David Short They are fossils of sea creatures that became extinct about 65 million years ago Photo: Lebatihem Mary Anning 1799-1847 Photo: ellenm1 Fossil hunter and palaeontologist Found important fossils of prehistoric animals in the cliffs at Lyme Regis, Dorset. In 1811, Mary Anning uncovered a 5 metre long skeleton of an ancient sea reptile – it came to be known as Ichthyosaur Photo: Lebatihem.

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In Pliocene Deposits, Antarctic Continental Margin (ANDRILL 1B Drill Core) Molly F
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln ANDRILL Research and Publications Antarctic Drilling Program 2009 Significance of the Trace Fossil Zoophycos in Pliocene Deposits, Antarctic Continental Margin (ANDRILL 1B Drill Core) Molly F. Miller Vanderbilt University, [email protected] Ellen A. Cowan Appalachian State University, [email protected] Simon H. H. Nielsen Florida State University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/andrillrespub Part of the Oceanography Commons, and the Paleobiology Commons Miller, Molly F.; Cowan, Ellen A.; and Nielsen, Simon H. H., "Significance of the Trace Fossil Zoophycos in Pliocene Deposits, Antarctic Continental Margin (ANDRILL 1B Drill Core)" (2009). ANDRILL Research and Publications. 61. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/andrillrespub/61 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Antarctic Drilling Program at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in ANDRILL Research and Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in Antarctic Science 21(6) (2009), & Antarctic Science Ltd (2009), pp. 609–618; doi: 10.1017/ s0954102009002041 Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press Submitted July 25, 2008, accepted February 9, 2009 Significance of the trace fossil Zoophycos in Pliocene deposits, Antarctic continental margin (ANDRILL 1B drill core) Molly F. Miller,1 Ellen A. Cowan,2 and Simon H.H. Nielsen3 1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA 2. Department of Geology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA 3. Antarctic Research Facility, Florida State University, Tallahassee FL 32306-4100, USA Corresponding author — Molly F.
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CURRICULUM VITAE Ilya V. Buynevich Ilya V
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Making a Trace Fossil
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