Incomplete fossil record
What Incomplete fossil record means in Biology GCSE, as defined for AQA.
Definitions of Incomplete fossil record
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Reference: AQA
The gaps in the record of past life that result from geological activity destroying many traces, especially of the earliest and most fragile organisms.
Most organisms that ever lived left no fossil because decay, scavengers and geological processes destroyed their remains, so the record is patchy.
Topics that use Incomplete fossil record
- Fossils (AQA GCSE)
Related terms
- Change over geological time
- Common ancestry
- Comparing fossil and living structures
- Conditions for decay
- Data handling skills
- Decay and preservation
- Evidence and bias
- Evidence for evolution
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