But
fossil records from this time are spotty, with only small fragments identified.
Fossil records from New Zealand, Japan, Europe and North America, all showed evidence of mass deforestation.
Fossils in Namibia, meanwhile, represent the Ediacarian biotope, the earliest discovered marine ecosystem, dating back 600 million years and made up entirely of strange, pneumatic creatures that floated.The rise of fish, too, is well represented in Africa's
fossil records.
However, these
fossil records have their limitations - ones that need to be properly understood in order to correct for sampling biases.
Examination of
fossil records by scientists from the University of Bath determined that the asteroid's impact had been much more severe than previously thought.
According to a report by BBC News, scientists used
fossil records stretching back 540 million years to work out the evolution rate at reefs.
Previously, some scientists had assumed that the
fossil records of all of those groups of species would show a large number of Lazarus taxa, says Fraiser.
"From
fossil records to the irreducible complexity of biochemistry, the logical and evidential fallacies of evolutionary theory are exposed."
Dragonflies are among the most ancient of living creatures, with
fossil records dating back 300 million years, predating dinosaurs by over 100 million years and birds by some 150 million, according to the World Dragonfly Association.
The board voted 13-2 July 12 against proposed changes that would have required students to "analyze the impact of new scientific facts on the theory of evolution" and to "analyze evidence of
fossil records, similarities in body structures, embryological studies and DNA studies that support or do not support the theory of evolution."
Only when they began to compare the plant's leaf structure to
fossil records were the scientists able to determine that what Mogul had stumbled onto was a tree thought to be extinct since the age of the dinosaurs.
"Previous
fossil records suggested this group was part of an ancient lineage from North America but the DNA showed these unusual forms were part of the modern radiation of equid species," Orlando said.