Research Shows Fossil Gaps Don’t Affect Evolution

Fossils play a crucial role in reconstructing the history of evolution, but not all organisms become fossils, and many are lost due to erosion that destroys the rocks they are found in. This means the fossil record is inherently incomplete, with missing pieces that complicate the task of piecing together evolutionary history.

A recent study by sedimentologists and stratigraphers from the Netherlands and the UK has revealed that this lack of completeness might not be as problematic as once thought. They discovered that the incompleteness of the fossil record isn’t the primary issue.

According to Niklas Hohmann from Utrecht University, the problem is less about missing large portions of the record and more about the nature of the gaps. He compares the situation to a movie with missing frames: while missing the whole second half would make the plot hard to follow, missing every second frame still allows you to understand the story. In other words, if gaps in the fossil record are consistent and regular, it’s possible to reconstruct evolutionary history fairly accurately. However, if gaps are unusually long or erratic, the results can become highly distorted.

The findings, published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, challenge the long-standing concern since Darwin's time that the gaps in the fossil record would prevent us from seeing the gradual changes his theory of evolution predicts. Darwin had feared that the gradual nature of evolution would be obscured by these gaps.

The research shows that Darwin’s concerns were misplaced. With a good grasp of the gaps' nature and causes, scientists can now reconstruct evolution with impressive detail, even over vast timescales. By employing computer simulations to model geological processes across long periods, Hohmann and his team assessed how different evolutionary models fit with fossil records, considering various stratigraphic conditions and sea level fluctuations.

Hohmann suggests that Darwin would find solace in this study. Despite the incomplete fossil record, it still strongly supports our understanding of the patterns and rates of evolution.