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What is the
history of fossils?
When were fossils
formed?
There is no one
point in time at which all fossils were formed.
Instead, the preserved remains and traces were
slowly added to the layers formed over billions of
years and this means that each fossil's age must be
determined individually.
For example, a
palaeontologist can look at the fossil record and
see the ancient fossils of winged insects dating to
the early Carboniferous Period. Because there are
no known fossils of winged insects that predate
these, it is logical to assume that this type of
organism developed approximately 325 - 360 million
years ago. This of course means that the fossils of
winged insects were formed after this period of
time.
The University of
Berkeley provides a detailed geological
timeline.
What are the
youngest fossils?
It is widely
believed that the youngest fossil must be around
10, 000 years old, as the fossilisation process
cannot be completed in any shorter frame of time
(except in the instances of freezing and
preservation in tar pits).
What are the
oldest fossils?
The oldest
fossilised evidence of life on earth, which can be
dated back 3.5 billion years. Fossils of this age
are referred to as stromatolites and come in the
form of structures that were built as a result of
activity by microorganisms called cyanobacteria, a
single celled organism similar to blue green
algae.
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Fossils in
human history
Some of the first
fossil hunters or discovers were probably the
Greeks and Romans. According to Adrienne
Mayor.
Conrad Gesner's
book On Fossil Objects, Chiefly Stones and Gems,
their Shapes and Appearances
Explanations for
how fossils formed have varied through out history
from seeds forming the rocks to metaphysical forces
outside of nature.
reference : palaeo-electronica.org
One of the first
Natural history museums that would have housed some
of the first fossils in the English world would
have been from the collection of Sir Hans Sloane
(1660-1753) which eventually became the Natural
History Museum of London.
reference: www.nhm.ac.uk
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There have been many movies and TV
programs inspired entirely by fossils and what we
think they may have looked like.
