konserwowanie: Fossil

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

A fossil (from Classical Latin fossilis, lit. 'obtained by digging') is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record. Though the fossil record is incomplete, numerous studies have demonstrated that there is enough information available to give a good understanding of the pattern of diversification of life on Earth, and it can fill gaps in our understanding of the sequence of evolution on earth. Paleontology includes the study of fossils:…

Evidence: 49 • authority: 88

Phylogenetic inference from an incomplete fossil record. Abstract Fossil data is crucial to construct phylogenetic time trees, which serve as the basis to test a wide range of evolutionary hypotheses. While the fossil record is known to be incomplete, modern stratigraphy provides predictions of the structure of the fossil record as expressed by gap location and duration. Advances in phylogenetic model development allow us to propagate this information into Bayesian phylogenetic inference in the form of priors on time-variable fossil sampling. However, the impact and role of stratigraphic architectures on time tree inference has so far remained unexplored. We introduce a novel simulation fra…

Evidence: 49 • authority: 92

Connecting links with code: AI in morphological evolution.. Evolutionary biology and paleontology are based on fossil material of morphological data, i.e., anatomical, size, symmetry, ontogenetic, etc., as the dominant empirical record of the history of life over deep time. Such physical records tie evolutionary histories to the geologic past, guiding evolutionary molecular clock calibrations, phylogenetic speculations and macroevolutionary trends such as adaptive radiations, mass extinctions, morphological stasis and disparity. Additional explanations of the history of biogeography, evolution inside niches and lineage adaptation to environmental disturbances are provided by spatial-tempora…

Evidence: 44 • authority: 92

A Mitogenome-Based Phylogenetic Framework for Mantidae (Mantodea: Mantoidea): Systematic Implications and Spatio-Temporal Dynamics.. Mantidae exhibits the most extensive adaptive radiation within the order Mantodea; however, studies elucidating their internal phylogenetic relationships and spatio-temporal diversification patterns remain scarce. This study aims to resolve the long-standing taxonomic uncertainties within Mantidae by testing the hypothesis that the polyphyletic nature of several subfamilies-specifically Tenoderinae and Hierodulinae-is linked to an incomplete understanding of their mitochondrial genomic evolution. To address this, we assembled 16 complete Mantodea mitochondrial…

Evidence: 44 • authority: 92

Fossil record biases skew inferences of mammal trait evolution.. The fossil record is key to elucidating past biodiversity dynamics, yet it remains incomplete and non-uniform, governed by factors such as sedimentation rates, species' range and body size, and sampling effort. How these biases distort inferences on evolutionary trends remains poorly understood. Here, we simulate a future fossil record of present-day land mammals to quantify the extent to which real evolutionary patterns can be recovered from fragmentary fossil data. Species are filtered according to sediment availability, species' range and body size, and spatial and taxonomic sampling biases under three preservation rates, a…

Evidence: 44 • authority: 72

Paleontology or palaeontology is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geologic time, and assess the interactions between prehistoric organisms and their natural environment. While paleontological observations are known from at least the 6th century BC, the foundation of paleontology as a science dates back to the work of Georges Cuvier in 1796. Cuvier demonstrated evidence for the concept of extinction and how the life of the past was not necessarily the same as that of the present. The field developed rapidly over the course of the following decades, and t…

Evidence: 44 • authority: 72

The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and extinct organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to the present day. Earth formed about 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years ago (abbreviated as Ga, for gigaannum) and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 Ga. The similarities among all known present-day species indicate that they have diverged through the process of evolution from a common ancestor. The earliest clear evidence of life comes from biogenic carbon signatures and stromatolite fossils discovered in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks from western Greenland. In 2015, possible "remains of biotic life" were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rock…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 88

On the Incompleteness of the Coelacanth Fossil Record. This study conducted a spatiotemporal review of the coelacanth fossil record and explored its distribution and diversity patterns. Coelacanth research can be divided into two distinct periods: the first period, which is based solely on the fossil record, and the second period following the discovery of extant taxa, significantly stimulating research interest. The distribution and research intensity of coelacanth fossils exhibit marked spatial heterogeneity, with Europe and North America being the most extensively studied regions. In contrast, Asia, South America, and Oceania offer substantial potential for future research. Temporally, t…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 92

Nuclear phylogenomic analysis of Allium (Amaryllidaceae) species from Kazakhstan reveals incomplete lineage sorting and gene flow.. Background The genus Allium L. (Amaryllidaceae J.St.-Hil.) comprises more than 1,000 species distributed primarily across the Northern Hemisphere and represents one of the most taxonomically and economically important lineages of monocots. Despite extensive molecular research based on nuclear and plastid markers, phylogenetic relationships within the genus remain incompletely resolved, largely due to limited locus sampling and pervasive phylogenetic discordance. Results We implemented a nuclear phylogenomic approach using the Angiosperms353 target-enrichment pr…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 72

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of warmblooded reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They existed through most of the Mesozoic era, first appearing early in the Triassic period. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya and their dominance continued throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch, and are the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 mya. Dinosaurs can therefore be divided into avian dinosaurs—birds—and the extinct non-avian dinosa…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 72

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, formerly known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction event, was a major mass extinction of three-quarters (75%) of the plant and animal species on Earth which occurred around 66 million years ago. The event caused the extinction of all the non-avian dinosaurs and most other tetrapods weighing more than 25 kg (55 lb), excepting some ectothermic species such as sea turtles and crocodilians. It marked the ends of both the Cretaceous period and the Mesozoic era, and logged the beginning of the current geological era, the Cenozoic era. In the geologic record, the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K–Pg boundary or K…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Diversification dynamics of Placentalia (Mammalia): integrating the fossil record with molecular phylogenies