AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Fossils provide important evidence for evolution and the adaptation of plants and animals to their environments. Fossil evidence provides a record of how creatures evolved and how this process can be represented by a ‘tree of life’, showing that all species are related to each other.

Detailed explanation-2: -Fossils of any kind are useful in “reading the rock record, ” meaning they help us decipher the history of the earth. They can help us determine the geologic age and environment (the paleoenvironment) in which they were deposited.

Detailed explanation-3: -As pieces of once living things, body fossils are evidence of what was living where and when. Trace fossils are valuable because they “animate” the ancient animals or plants by recording a moment of an organism’s life when it was still alive.

Detailed explanation-4: -How do fossils provide evidence for change over time? As the world changes, plants and animals change with it. Aside from a few living fossils, the species we see today are very different from species that lived in the past. Thus, the fossil record can be used to show that organisms changed to meet new conditions.