Tag: fossil record
Fossil Friday: Direct Fossil Ancestors of Living Species?
Willi Hennig, the founder of phylogenetic systematics (cladistics), recognized that finding and demonstrating direct ancestors would be a very hard task.
Fossil Friday: The Big Bang of Tertiary Birds and a Phylogenetic Mess
There was an abrupt origin, a burst of biological creativity, which is best explained by an infusion of new information from an intelligent agent.
How the Caterpillar Got Its Legs…Or Not
Almost 400 years after its discovery, the process of metamorphosis is still a thorny conundrum for evolutionary biologists.
Fossil Friday: The Abrupt Origin of Insectivore Mammals
We can conclude that Eulipotyphla appeared abruptly in the Paleocene about 66-61.7 million years ago.
Fossil Friday: Update on Cambrian Bryozoans
The authors emphasize that “the origin of the bryozoans remains a mystery” but explicitly confirm the reality of the Cambrian Explosion.