Chapter 23.1, Problem 4CC

Summary Introduction

To explain:

The inferences that might be drawn from the given excavated fossil possessing a mammalian jaw and mammalian teeth, about the origin of mammal’s evolution of the novel skeletal structures.

Introduction:

Fossils are formed only under certain conditions. Many organisms died and get buried in the earth but all the organisms are not fossilized. For organisms that die in or near the coastal or marine areas, their bodies get rotten away and their bones are settled on the base or floor of coastal or marine body. In due course of time sediment deposits on and around their bones and the bones get dissolved in the sediment. That forms a mould. On the deposition of the minerals over the bones in the mold, a fossil is formed.