How do transitional fossils best serve as evidence for evolution?
Evidence for Evolution- Transitional Fossils They show the intermediate steps in the evolution of a species. Transitional fossils document the evolution of species. For example, most people are familiar with the evolution of horses from small, multi-toed animals to large, hoofed animals. The many species in between Eohippus (now known as Hyracotherium,) the dawn horse, and Equus, the horse of today, are transitional fossils. Creationists often criticize transitional fossils by stating that there is no proof that a given fossil is the ancestor of a given species. What is one thing that is wrong with such criticisms?Evidence for Evolution- Transitional Fossils Evolution is rarely a straight-line process; it’s a bush rather than an arrow. For example, the horse family tree has many branches (see http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/horses/horse_evol.html for a great discussion of this.) Therefore, some of the branches were indeed not direct ancestors of the modern horse. But all of the branche
Evidence for Evolution- Transitional Fossils They show the intermediate steps in the evolution of a species. Transitional fossils document the evolution of species. For example, most people are familiar with the evolution of horses from small, multi-toed animals to large, hoofed animals. The many species in between Eohippus (now known as Hyracotherium,) the dawn horse, and Equus, the horse of today, are transitional fossils. What is a transitional fossil?Evidence for Evolution- Transitional Fossils A fossil intermediate between two other fossils. Transitional fossils show the pathway of evolution from one type of animal to another. For example, Archaeopteryx was a fossil that showed characteristics of both its reptilian forebears and its avian descendants. Humans have quite a few instances of suboptimal design and evolutionary quirks. Like most animals, we have vestigial structures- things that evolved for a specific purpose at one point in our evolution, but are no longer useful for t
Evidence for Evolution- Transitional Fossils They show the intermediate steps in the evolution of a species. Transitional fossils document the evolution of species. For example, most people are familiar with the evolution of horses from small, multi-toed animals to large, hoofed animals. The many species in between Eohippus (now known as Hyracotherium,) the dawn horse, and Equus, the horse of today, are transitional fossils. What is a transitional fossil? Evidence for Evolution- Transitional Fossils A fossil intermediate between two other fossils. Transitional fossils show the pathway of evolution from one type of animal to another. For example, Archaeopteryx was a fossil that showed characteristics of both its reptilian forebears and its avian descendants. Humans have quite a few instances of suboptimal design and evolutionary quirks. Like most animals, we have vestigial structures- things that evolved for a specific purpose at one point in our evolution, but are no longer useful for
