Fossil record

In recent centuries, people have found pieces of rock and other hard material with indentations that look like the remains of dead organisms. Dating these by methods such as radiocarbon dating would seem to indicate that various organisms lived and died at certain times and places.

For those scientists who accept the idea that fossils? show the shape of dead organisms and place them in geological time, the totality of discovered fossils constitutes the fossil record.

Adherents of Darwinian evolution and Intelligent Design both accept the fossil record. Adherents of Sudden Creationism do not.

Note: the matter of the fossil record provides a clear but often overlooked distinction between the primary schools of thought within Creationism.

Over the years, many people have found bones or impressions in hard materials in the shape of organisms. These are called fossils and are considerd by scientists a record of organisms that lived long ago. Dating methods, such as radioactive carbon, show that some of these fossils are tens of millions of years old.

The fossil record is one of the primary sources of data relevant to evolution.

Many non-scientists reject the authenticity of the fossil record, primarily on religious grounds. See Creationism.

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