

The Global Fossil Record - d2fn
http://d2fn.com/2014/08/13/global-fossil-record.html

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Squarel
Very nice visualization, but the conditions necessary for fossilization should
also be considered when weighting the types of species and drawing
conclusions.

The conditions for fossilization occur with lower frequency in terrestrial
ecosystems compared to aquatic systems for example, so even though complex
life originated in marine ecosystems, if there had been more terrestrial
species than aquatic species, we would not necessarily expect to find this in
fossilization as far as I know.

Plant evolution is something that is extremely interesting to me, and I liked
that part of the graphic. The arms race in ecosystems (With the classic
example being rainforests) driving biodiversity, and the evolution of plants
from gymnosperms to angiosperms in response to this (among other factors) is
fascinating!

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d2fn
"Paleontologists are sure that the fossil record is biased."...

"Land animals are probably very poorly represented as well. For example, most
animals that are now alive, or ever have lived, are insects, but the fossil
record of insects is poor."...

[http://www.k5geosource.org/1content/1sc/fossils/pg6.html](http://www.k5geosource.org/1content/1sc/fossils/pg6.html)

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autokad
the wheel graphic could suggest (though not necessarily) that we evolved from
a fresh water creature. Is there any theories on this that you guys know of?

it seems like it was always assumed to be a salt water creature, but it
actually makes more sense in my head as a fresh water one, as it would pop
into habitats conducive to terrestrial life

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tstactplsignore
You're correct, the immediate ancestors of tetrapods almost certainly lived in
freshwater, as known intermediate fossils like titaalik were found in fresh
water stream deposits[1]. I believe all of the immediate ancestors of and
early tetrapods have been found in fresh water deposits, although I can't
confirm.

[1]
[http://tiktaalik.uchicago.edu/searching4Tik3.html](http://tiktaalik.uchicago.edu/searching4Tik3.html)

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Duckpaddle2
That is a very cool visualization, one of the best I have seen.

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sboak
good jub dietrich

