Hey guys and welcome back to Field Notes. Now
at the beginning of this month there was
a day called national fossil day and
that was October 12 so I am super on my
game.
let's check to see when national fossil
day is next year
shall we.  Next year it is October 11 so
I'm either very unprepared for this year
or i'm just really on top of things for
next year, anyway every year the National
Park Service organizes a big day
basically just celebrating fossils and
their stewardship and honestly what
better way to celebrate and honor
fossils that to learn more about them.  On
this channel I have done two other videos
about fossils but today we're going to
be talking about the fossil record. And
the fossil record is basically what it
sounds like it is a record of all of our
fossils but we have put it in order in a
fancy order so it tells the history of
our planet through the fossils that we
have collected. Remember the fossils are
just physical representations of a life
at that point in time. So as you can
probably imagine they're really good at
indicating what's going on in the world.
Now one of the main questions asked
about the fossil record is is it
complete and the short answer is no and
it's doubtful it ever will be. This
is the case for several reasons first of
all I think we need to have a definition
of what complete is. What does complete mean?
does that mean that we have a fossil
representation of every organism in
every variation?  Then that's a very tall
order when it comes to Fossils.  We have
to remember that the creation of fossils
is an unlikely event. The environment and
the factors that go into fossilization
have to be just right for it to even occur,
and even if you do become a fossil
there's a good chance that you're going
to be destroyed before a sentient ape evolves
and picks you up and decides to
categorize you. Lastly there's an
awful lot of geologic strata that we
cannot see, it is below us and will
likely never reach the surface.  So
because the fossil record is incomplete
there's always a lot of talk about
finding the missing link, and what most
people mean by missing link is simply a
transitional form between two branches
of evolution.  One missing link or
transitional form is simply going to
open the doorway to other transitional
forms with smaller changes it is also important
to remember that any transitional
species is going to happen in a small
population, and if we remember some
terminology then we should remember that
the more of you there are the more
likely it is that you will become a
fossil
however there is one story that I wanted
to share with you guys about the
discovery of a so-called 'missing link'
or a transitional form and that is the
transition between a vertebrate that was
adapted for land and the ones that were
adapted for water. These transitional
fossils were discovered by somebody
named Neil Shubin in the very northern
part of Canada. Shubin's team found a pit
of fish skeletons that were so
well-preserved that they were able to
determine that this was the missing link
between vertebrates that were adapted
for water and those that were adapted
for land, basically it split these
adaptations right down the middle so
half were very water-based and half were very
land-based. this was in 2004 and that is
basically an hour ago to geologists
This creature was characterized as a
lobe-finned fish and I would be
surprised if you guys haven't heard the
name because the name is Tiktaalik and I
feel like it's such a unique name
that we probably remember it when we
hear it. Tiktaalik, I love it it's so
fun to say. This wasn't the first Tiktaalik to
be found we found another one in
1998, what we assume now to be a Tiktaalik
because it was just a fin and it
had finger-like digits forming. So that's
how the fossil record helps us determine
the evolutionary tree but it also has
very practical uses for geologists.
Fossils are excellent age markers for
strata it is much easier to determine the
age of a rock if you have a plant or
fish in it that you know couldn't have
existed before or after a certain date.
The fossil record is also a fabulous
indication of climate change if you are
seeing one type of fossil or even a
group of fossils, and then suddenly
they're gone
that is a really good indication that
something in their environment has
changed. That is the fossil record
helping tell earth story incomplete and
all remember if you like these videos
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come back hang out with us
we've got some really cool stuff coming
i'm really hoping that we can get some
of these videos filmed.
Pressure of adulthood crushing crushing
compressing. If you want to share this
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see you guys very soon with another
video. Bye!
