Information Related to "Out-of-Place Fossils"
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Out-of-Place Fossils
The geologic column depicted in many science textbooks and museums supposedly shows which life forms existed at any particular time in the history of our planet. Trilobites, for example, are thought to have lived during the Cambrian period and later became extinct. Dinosaurs walked the earth during what are called the Jurassic and Triassic periods and likewise later became extinct.According to traditional scientific thinking, such creatures should not be found on earth today because the geologic column shows they fell victim to extinction many millions of years ago. However, several discoveries of "living fossils" have cast doubt on this long-accepted interpretation of the fossil record.
An astounding catch
Perhaps the most stunning-and famous-of these living
fossils is the coelacanth. Fossils of this unusual fish first appear in strata from
the Devonian period, with an estimated age of 350 million years.
For years paleontologists thought the coelacanth became extinct about 70 million years ago, since they found no fossil remains of the fish in deposits formed later than the Cretaceous period.
At least they thought that was the case until December 1938, when a fishing trawler captured a living coelacanth off the eastern coast of South Africa. Scientists were stunned. After all, the discovery was akin to finding a living dinosaur in a remote patch of jungle!
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