Re: Fossil record gaps not a major issue

  RonO wrote:

 Pro Plyd wrote:

>
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-darwin-unjustified-fossil-gaps-major.html
>
Darwin's fear was unjustified: Study suggests
fossil record gaps not a major issue

They're expected, would be shocking for them to not exist but they are
an issue... "Major?" Why not.
There's not exactly a lot of issues!
Dating is always one. People are forever arguing over dating.
What other issues are there?

SNIP:
 The simulation described in the paper is not realistic and likely doesn't apply to terrestrial lifeforms.

Just look at climate models aka simulations? Nothing has got it right
in 50 years!  There was a claim not to long ago that some software
from the 90s got everything right, only problem was that nobody is
saying, "Hey! Let's use this! It's accurate, unlike everything else,
so let's use this software!"
Yeah, sometime (often) the absence of evidence IS the evidence of
absence!
Sometimes.

  Their conclusions likely are not valid.  Erosion is not the main reason that there are gaps in the fossil record.

True. But when you're getting into VERY old fossils it's a major issue.
It's even an issue for the Cambrian! I know it was a long time before
they discovered more fossil bearing deposits THAT old..

  You need deposition to occur in order for the fossils to be created, and deposition has to occur in the correct soils.

Water is the best. There's far more marine fossils than land animals.

The greatest species diversity occurs in equatorial rain forests, but those forest soils dissolve bone.

But as long as they have lakes, rivers... Oo!  River deltas are great
at preservation... though we're talking quantity not quality.
They suck at quality. You never find an articulated skeleton. You're
lucky it individual bones aren't broken!
--
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