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Life shows up in the fossil record more or less as soon as rocks on the Earths surface start forming. The first billions years on earth mostly involved the pla
by zeth___ 8y ago
Life shows up in the fossil record more or less as soon as rocks on the Earths surface start forming.
The first billions years on earth mostly involved the planet getting hit by large things and the surface melting. Repeat every millennium.
- throwaway5752 8y agoYou just explained why there's no fossil record from early earth, unless I'm misunderstanding you and that was your point. Ocean floor is continuously destroyed as it's subducted, and continents won't have fossils if they are under frequent bombardment.
- joshuahedlund 8y ago> continents won't have fossils if they are under frequent bombardment. Right, but if giant bombardments completely boil away the oceans and atmosphere to rain liquid rocks back down on the surface, there very very likely won't be life, either. So the claim is not just that "fossils only go back to X" but that X is so close to the end of the giant bombardments that there's almost no time left (geologically speaking - maybe 10-20MY) for "life but no fossils yet".
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]