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Fossils preserve anatomical adaptations
- Paleontologists can determine how old fossils are by using radiometric dating.
- By placing the fossils of extinct animals across a time-line Paleontologists predict how animals might have adapted from long extinct animals to their modern forms.
- A family tree arranges these patterns of evolution to common ancestors.
The anatomy and development of animals contain a similar design
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- Homologous structures are similar body parts that have different purposes, such as the bones of the forelimbs of bats, whales, and humans have the same sequence of arrangement even though they are used very differently.
- Vestigial structures are similar structures that serve no purpose at all, such as the tail bone in humans.
- Homologous and vestigial structures provide evidence of common ancestry.
- Early in development, all vertebrate embryos are similar. As development continues, some structures pass through stages that may represent evolutionary links.
DNA contains a molecular record of Evolution
- Similarities in the written code of DNA can be compared to the similarities between species on a family tree in the same way that DNA can be used to determine how closely people are related to one another.
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