The dinosaur fossils perfectly match the evolutionary tree

A recent study by researchers at Bath University and London's Museum of Natural History found that scientists' knowledge of dinosaur evolution is complete.

Evolutionary biologists use two ways to study the evolution of prehistoric plants and animals: they first use chronological radiation techniques to place fossils in chronological order. time depends on the age of the stone in which they are destroyed (strata); the way they observe and classify the properties of the rest has fossilized according to their relatives (morphology).

Dr. Matthew Wills of the Bath University Department of Biochemistry and Dr. Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum and Julia Heathcote at Birkbeck College (London) analyzed statistical data from fossils of four major dinosaur groups. to examine the accuracy of these fossils when matching their evolutionary tree.

The researchers found that dinosaur fossil record has been studied, from giant lizards to bipedal dinosaurs like T. rex, perfectly matching the evolutionary tree, meaning that the way of looking The current evolution of this animal is completely accurate.

Dr. Matthew Wills of Bath University uses computational methods to assess the accuracy of dinosaur evolutionary plants. (Photo: Bath University). Dr. Matthew Wills explains: 'We have two separate lines of evidence about the history of life: the chronology of fossils in stone, and the evolutionary tree'.

' When they both tell the same story, the most appropriate explanation is that both reflect the truth. If they do not match, and the animal order on the tree evolves with the chronological order, you may have a wrong evolutionary tree, or missing fossils, or both. '

'What we show in this study is that the consistency for dinosaurs is very good, meaning that we can trust our knowledge of the evolutionary history of this animal. In other words, our knowledge of dinosaurs is very good. '

Scientists study intermittent intervals in fossil record, when the evolutionary tree shows that there must be fossils, but not yet found. They chart these gaps on the evolutionary tree and calculate the ability to determine rigor.

Dr. Wills said: 'Gaps in fossil record may appear for a number of reasons. Only a very small number of animals are preserved as fossils, due to special geological conditions. Some fossils may be difficult to classify because they are incomplete; others have not been found '.

'Finding the correct date for some fossils is also a difficult task. For example, some of the oldest fossils may not be complete, so it is difficult to determine which group it belongs to. This is especially true for bone fragments. Our research has also taken into account these aspects. '

'We are very excited that our data shows the perfect match between the evolutionary tree and the fossil date. This is because it confirms that the fossil record provides an accurate account of the evolution of animals over a period of time and provides clues about the formation of mammals and birds from animals. ancient things'.

The study, published in the journal Sytematic Biology, is part of a project funded by the Biotechnology Research Council, which combines different types of evolving evidence to create evolutionary plants. more exactly.

Refer:

Wills et al.The Modified Gap Excess Ratio (GER *) and the Stratigraphic Congruence of Dinosaur Phylogenies.Systematic Biology, 2008;57 (6): 891 DOI: 10.1080 / 10635150802570809