0 the fossils in a particular group of rocks that give information about how and when those rocks formed, or the set of all fossils together that can be used to tell the history of the earth
1 the fossils in a particular group of rocks that give information about how and when those rocks formed
Our only reason for supposing the evolution of life, made plain by fossil records, to have taken place very slowly is that geologists have stated that the deposition of the strata took place very slowly.
This fossil record has given us our best knowledge of the course by which the present living world has been brought into its existing condition.
Biases in the fossil record can be due to features or mechanisms predating or postdating the collecting or during the collection process itself.
Nobody is pretending from this latter perspective that the fossil record is perfect, but it is argued it is good enough to derive a history.
However, despite the abundance of sequence data from genomes of organisms, molecular time estimates rely on accurate calibrations, usually from the fossil record.
This is unlikely to be available, as there is not likely a fossil record of pain faces.
But there are other data from the fossil record, which are surely relevant to the evolution of a less narrowly defined object of study.
The fossil record also reveals that anatomical changes that broadened and shortened the pelvis and reshaped the birth canal began occurring well before this exodus.
