Fossils, defined as the physical remains of past life, provide invaluable information to scientists. They not only provide a picture of a long-distant past, but also information that can be used to understand the evolution of today's plants and animals and clues for the future of our planet.
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Fossils provide evidence of past life forms and help scientists determine the age of rocks and the sequence of events in Earth's history. By studying fossils, we can understand the evolution of organisms and the environmental changes that have occurred over millions of years, which is crucial for reconstructing Earth's geologic time scale and understanding the history of life on our planet.
We need to know what happens because it could happen again about how they die so we can prevent it to happen again.
Short spans of geologic time
The information the geologic scale provides is animals and fossils over time and periods. Major divisions of time is called eras.
Fossils found in the rock layer are the most accurate method for pinpointing a time period on the geologic time scale. By identifying the specific types of fossils present, scientists can determine the age of the rock layer relative to the known age ranges of those fossils.
They are called index fossils, fossils of organisms that were widespread, evolving quickly, and only appeared in the geologic column for a specific length of time.
Scientists first developed the geologic time scale by studying rock layers and index fossils worldwide. With this info. (information if you forget!), scientists placed Earth's rocks in order by the relative age.