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earth. In fact, fossils proved to be extremely useful in helping to reconstruct where the continents had been in the past. In this way it was possible to see that the continents had all been part of one giant landmass 300 million years ago, explaining why similar land-based animals could have lived on all the continents.
Fossils and geological time
The rocks contain a nearly complete record of the history of the earth. The information on which much of that record is based comes from fossils.
The rocks themselves may tell us, in a very general way, something about the environment when they were deposited. For example, the shape of the grains in a sandstone may hint that they formed in a desert or on a beach. But the living things that existed while the rock was being formed, are far more various
and sensitive to environments than the grains in the
(Below) The distribution
of a number of species of organism provided one of the early indicators of the past arrangement of the continents.
The Triassic reptile Lystrosaurus
Australia
The Triassic reptile Cynognathus
Africa
India
South America
Antarctica
The freshwater reptile Mesosaurus
The fern Glossopteris
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