Representations of Life's History
Representations of Life's History
The major focus of this topic is to help you understand how scientists use deductive reasoning to understand the past. Scientists can never know exactly what happened in the past, but they are able to use various forms of evidence (clues) to piece together a coherent picture. When evidence from many different areas start to agree with each other it lends more credibility to the theory. Different forms of evidence, such as that provided by geological records and fossil evidence, will be introduced.
Scientists have divided the history of life into different time periods using the geological timescale. In this section we will present the key evidence scientists have used to construct this time scale. We will discuss the continental drift theory which explains how the continents were formed. We will also briefly touch on the theory of natural selection which explains how one life form can evolve into another over many years by adapting to its changing environment. We will then present the methods by which we are able to determine evolution of life forms over time through examining the fossil record.
This lesson is part of:
History of Life on Earth