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The Importance of Fossil Records

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What do fossil records tell scientist about climate change,Extinct species, Evolution, Meteor Strikes, Mass Extinctions, Wandering Poles?

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The solution is an 833-word narrative that defines and explains the importance of fossil records to an understanding of change,Extinct species, Evolution, Meteor Strikes, Mass Extinctions & Wandering Poles. The attached word file comes in the form of a table. References are listed to allow further research.

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Dear Student,
Hello & thank you for using Brainmass. Just to be sure that your final set of answers are course-specific, may I suggest reviewing your current materials to include information in them in your final version? The solution below is based on general sources and while I cannot be sure it is course-specific for you, it should be enough to get you started. It is also attached in a table presentation as a word file. Good luck!

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OTA 105878/Xenia Jones
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Fossil Record

Climate change

As demonstrated in a recent study by the University of Leeds, England, fossil records can be used to determine the fluctuations in the oxygen and acidity levels of the atmosphere (using sea surface temperatures) spread out through millions of years between 'greenhouse' & 'icehouse' periods. Compared side by side via fossil records as well with the diversity of flora and fauna, they were able, via fossil records, to prove that climate change is part of the cycle of the planet.

Continental drift

German Geologist Alfred Wagener's theory of continental drift (that the earth's crust drift atop a liquid core & through tectonic movement, the continents 'drift over time) is supported by fossil records found all over the world in the most unexpected places. Eduard Suess, an Austrian geologist found evidence of flora and fauna in fossil records that supports the breaking up of the supercontinent Pangaea, especially through the fossil records of the fossil plant Glossopteris & ...

Solution provided by:
Xenia Rochelle Jones, MA, PhD (IP)
Education
  • MPhil/PhD (IP), Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
  • BA, University of the Philippines
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