The Fossil Records and Evolution

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gave rise to the diversity that we see documented in the fossil records and around us today". As for the factors that lead to the occurrence of evolution, several basic evolutionary mechanisms play an integral role in it. These include "mutation, migration, genetic drift, and natural selection". Because of them, major evolutionary changes are produced if given enough time. It is also believed that life on Earth has been accumulating mutations and passing them through the filter of natural selection for almost 3.8 billion years.
To be more detailed in the four major evolutionary mechanisms, these genetic processes have been undergoing for creating "conditions necessary for life to evolve" since "the universe, the solar system, and the Earth" started to form (University of California Museum of Paleontology, 2008). The first mechanism, mutation, refers to a heritable mistake in the DNA sequence, which can bring both negative and positive effects to an individual. Mutation drives ...

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provide wide-ranging evidence documenting the occurrence of evolution. It is not until in the eighteenth century that the systematic study of fossils began, and living things were found to be appeared in the first billion years of the Earth's history. Nevertheless, no fossil evidence of life forms older than 3.5 billion years has yet been found. It is discovered that "the entire organisms are rarely fossilized. The hard parts of an organism including shells, teeth and bones are mostly found, and those which do not decay quickly, remain as fossils". In addition, fossils can be found in various forms. Most fossils are actual bones and even animals' body parts that are encased in sedimentary ...

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