What are the factors that make the fossil record biased and incomplete?
What will be an ideal response?
Fossilization is more likely to occur in lowland areas where sediments are being deposited, and so
species living in mountainous or xeric areas are less likely to fossilize. In addition, organisms with
hard body parts are more likely to fossilize than soft-bodied organisms. Hence there is a far more
complete fossil record of vertebrate evolution than of the evolution of flowers, for example. Finally,
abundant, widespread organisms are more likely to have been fossilized than rare organisms, or those
restricted to very specialized habitats.
You might also like to view...
DNA is found in all the following except:
A. mitochondria of animals. B. mitochondria of plants. C. chloroplasts of plants. E. many eukaryotic viruses. F. ribosomes of eukaryotes.
The alternative complement pathway plays an important role in innate immunity, but it is not an effective defense against intravascular invasion by bacteria and some fungi.
Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)
The Dlx/Hox gene control system operates across
many phyla, which is strong evidence that it evolved a very long time ago. Which of the following is true concerning this relationship? a. Hox activates Dlx. b. Dlx came first due to multilimbed animals in the fossil record. c. Hox came first due to legless animals in the fossil record. d. It randomly affects the number of limbs within insects. e. None of these are true.
Acacia trees provide food and shelter for ants. In turn ants protect the Acacia trees from herbivorous insects. This relationship exemplifies
A. mutualism. B. parasitism. C. commensalism. D. amensalism.