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Are there early animals we will never find because they never leave behind some sort of fossil?

by xwdv 5y ago

nuccy 5y ago
Most of animals don't leave any fossils, especially without skeleton. Special conditions are required for fossilification [1]. 1. https://www.americangeosciences.org/education/k5geosource/content/fossils/under-what-conditions-do-fossils-form https://www.americangeosciences.org/education/k5geosource/co...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
samstave 5y ago
The good news is that all modern fossils leave plenty of signatures in the form of legislation
kadoban 5y ago
Many upon many. The _vast_ majority of species are left out, and for ones that do have fossils the _vast_ majority of individuals are left out. Something getting fossilized is basically a miracle, and us finding it is another on top.
01100011 5y ago
Absolutely. Also consider that a vast portion of the Earth's crust has been recycled into the mantle over the millenia.
- zetalyrae 5y ago
  Maybe with enough technology we can drill into one of the sunken tectonic plates[0] and find fossils there. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Plate#Farallon_Plate_subduction_forms_North_American_Cordillera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Plate#Farallon_Plate_...
  - bradrn 5y ago
    Well, you can’t get fossils from rocks which have melted or metamorphised. If you try you might get lucky and find some relatively unscathed sediments, but I don’t know enough geology to say for sure how much of the plate would have escaped metamorphism.
Sharlin 5y ago
The vast majority of extinct animal species is like that. Fossilization is an incredibly rare event.
throwawayzRUU6f 5y ago
A relatively recent discovery points to macroscopic multicellular life as early as 2.1B years ago (1), right after the Great Oxidization Event. We only have fossils of a single specie. Given the complexity of the specimens, it's unlikely to have been the only specie in existence. The rest of the biota is probably lost to time. The fossil record for Ediacarian biota (pre-Cambrian age) is also very sparse. It's only after the evolution of endo/exoskeletons that we start to get proper fossil records (1) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francevillian_biota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francevillian_biota

Are there early animals we will never find because they never leave behind some sort of fossil?

by xwdv 5y ago

Are there early animals we will never find because they never leave behind some sort of fossil?

Most of animals don't leave any fossils, especially without skeleton. Special conditions are required for fossilification [1]. 1. https://www.americangeosciences.org/education/k5geosource/content/fossils/under-what-conditions-do-fossils-form https://www.americangeosciences.org/education/k5geosource/co...

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

samstave 5y ago

The good news is that all modern fossils leave plenty of signatures in the form of legislation

kadoban 5y ago

Many upon many. The _vast_ majority of species are left out, and for ones that do have fossils the _vast_ majority of individuals are left out. Something getting fossilized is basically a miracle, and us finding it is another on top.

01100011 5y ago

Absolutely. Also consider that a vast portion of the Earth's crust has been recycled into the mantle over the millenia.

zetalyrae 5y ago
Maybe with enough technology we can drill into one of the sunken tectonic plates[0] and find fossils there. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Plate#Farallon_Plate_subduction_forms_North_American_Cordillera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Plate#Farallon_Plate_...
- bradrn 5y ago
  Well, you can’t get fossils from rocks which have melted or metamorphised. If you try you might get lucky and find some relatively unscathed sediments, but I don’t know enough geology to say for sure how much of the plate would have escaped metamorphism.

Sharlin 5y ago

The vast majority of extinct animal species is like that. Fossilization is an incredibly rare event.

throwawayzRUU6f 5y ago

A relatively recent discovery points to macroscopic multicellular life as early as 2.1B years ago (1), right after the Great Oxidization Event. We only have fossils of a single specie. Given the complexity of the specimens, it's unlikely to have been the only specie in existence. The rest of the biota is probably lost to time. The fossil record for Ediacarian biota (pre-Cambrian age) is also very sparse. It's only after the evolution of endo/exoskeletons that we start to get proper fossil records (1) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francevillian_biota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francevillian_biota