Comment on Insomnia

• Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Which, tbf, it’s a miracle enough of the fossil record exists as is. I’m sure there was a LOT that was lost to the sands of time

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  • HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Iirc it’s reckoned most species likely aren’t known about because most places weren’t conducive to fossilisation

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• gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  ehh, modern biology doesn’t construct evolutionary history from fossil records, but from genetic similarities.

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  • RandomStickman@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    It's impossible to compare genetics from fossils and we can't

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    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      yeah that’s not what i meant. phylogenetic trees are constructed by considering the genetics of recent (living) species, not from fossils.

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      • RandomStickman@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        And this post is about ancestors of ferns which are unknown so I'm not sure what are you suggesting

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• F_State@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Relatively few lifeforms end up fossilizing and then some of those fossils later get eroded. The percentage that make it to the present is low.

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  • dudinax@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’m no paleontologist but it seems like our total knowledge of certain eras comes from a few river banks collapsing on whatever lived there. That’s not going to be a great representation of all life at that time.

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