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DESCENDING THE EVOLUTIONARY

LADDER

 

Robert D. Morritt

 

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          Paleontology is the study of fossils, which are the mineralised remains of living things. Paleontologists obtain useful information from trace fossils, (ichnofossils) the marks left behind in rocks by living things; tracks or footprints, fossil faeces (coprolites), worm trails etc. Paleontology is generally considered a specialist school of geology and/or the intersection of geology and biology. Creationists do not like paleontology because it provides hard evidence that life evolved over billions of years, and was not created over the course of six days, six to ten thousand years ago. There is no denying that the fossil record has been extremely relevant to the history of evolutionary theory and was a very strong source of evidence for early pioneers in the field.