The Role of Transitional Fossils in Vertebrate Evolution Assignment Sample

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Introduction

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The transitional fossils have an important role which provides relevant evidence based on the adaption and evaluation of animals and plants based on environments. The fossils also help to provide evidence of transitions in the evolution of the creatures of the “Tree of Life''. Scientists can easily identify the gaps in the “Tree of Life”. Therefore, the fossils help to identify the bridge of the vertebrates in an evolution manner.

Discussion

Overview of the vertebral evolution

The first vertebrates originated from the Cambrian explosion which indicates the rise of the organism diversity. The first resembles the vertebrates found in the hagfish which lived before 500 million years (Klimov, et al. 2020). This hagfish evolves after the appearance of the other categories of fish, which also evolve the traits of the complete vertebral-like bony endoskeleton and jaws. Amphibians were found as the first evolution under the tetrapod vertebrates categories who started to live on land.

Figure 1: Vertebrate evolution

The jawless fish were categorized under the category of earliest vertebrates, which are also similar to hagfish, who are lived before 500-600 million years, having the characteristics of a cranium. The reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals belong to other classes of vertebrates. The lobe-finned fish belongs to the category of first amphibians living as land vertebrates. The evolution of the reptile category faced the evolution from the amphibian ancestor. The first birds' categorize of mammals was evaluated 200m years ago and the bird's evolution before 150m years ago.

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Significance of transitional fossil

The transitional fossil has a significant role in determining the evidence of divergence of biological lineages from the origins. This also helps to demonstrate the entire evolutionary change process between the organisms of its descendants and the ancestors.

 The fact of an evolutionary transition from water to land

Transformational fossils provide significant evidence of evolutionary change over time. For vertebrate evaluation that originated as jawless fish in initial oceans 500 million years ago. These fish slowly developed a more complex anatomical way that includes jaws, fins, and original skeletons (Aguerri, and Zarattini, 2021). Such changes allowed early vertebrate fish and primitive shark classes to achieve predators in aquatic environments, driving the first changes on land millions of years later the right of way. Approximately 385 million years ago fathered, gill-breathing fish as recent coelacanths evolved into the first four legs vertebrates. Fossils like Tiktalik demonstrate an intermediate combination of fish and tetrapod traits following nature section preferring the use of lobed fins to swim in shallow water and walk on the land. Lastly, many changes are placed on the earth. Four legged animals at originated with strong limbs, feet, and limb bones that transmit loads on the land. Successively, natural selection led to changes in hydrated skin, eggshell, and egg metabolism from water to land. Another major change is growth of the lungs and inner ear (Thibon, et al. 2022). Transformational fossils capture the ongoing evolutionary adaptation to earthly life over millions of years. The resulting animals were able to expand into new environmental terrain.

Function of transitional fossils

Transitional fossils serve as crucial evidence of evolutionary links between ancestral species and their descendants. Biology Assignment Help These fossils provide researchers with valuable insights into species' evolutionary processes and potential future adaptations. Understanding transitional fossils is fundamental to comprehending the broader theory of evolution and its mechanisms

Examples of transitional fossils

The examples of transitional fossils offer a proper understanding of the evolutionary transition state in the vertebrates from the water to the land. There are many examples including the Tiktaalik roseae, Acanthostega, panderichthys, and Ichthyostega (Kim, et al. 2022). Tiktaalik was discovered in the area of Arctic Canada which has the combined features of fish and tetrapod’s so this consists of the fins like the fish.

Figure 2: Transitional fossil of Tiktaalik

The next example is the Acanthostega that was observed in the area of Greenland and exhibits the characteristics of both fish and tetrapod’s. They could be adapted for both types of environments terrestrial and aquatic. Ichthyostega is also found in the area of Greenland and represents the features of intermediate qualities of both fish and tetrapod’s. These have strong ribcages for giving support to the body on the land and the limbs help those in the water. Panderichthys are found in the region of Latvia and represent the features of both types of tetrapod’s and fish. So these fossils have thoroughly evolved themselves by acquiring the adaptation in the body.

The Scientific Mechanism Employed in the study of fossils

The methods can be used in the study of transitional fossils to reveal the history of evolution. There are many approaches including the analysis of paleontological excavation need the proper way of investigating the fossils that remain from the geographical divisions. This can provide information on the ancient history and the evolutionary mechanism of the vertebrates. The comparative analysis of the morphology and the anatomy can provide the structural analysis of them with modern organisms (Barrena, et al. 2023). The analysis of the adaptation process of the vertebrates helps to comprehend the facts of the ecosystem.

Improvements in the paleontological techniques

The developments of paleontological techniques are essential in modern times for the analysis of ancient history. This can be accomplished by the techniques of CT scanning which helps to visualize the structure of the fossils (Miao, et al. 2021). The utilization of molecular phylogenetic can analyze the relationship of evolution and reconstruct the trees. So the techniques are essential to improve the study of evolution with thorough information.

Conclusion

The transformational fossils provide significant evidence for understanding the evolutionary transition from the aquatic to terrestrial vertebrate. The major fossils forms like Tiktalik, Acanthostega, Ichthyostega, and Panderichthys that display the physiological vulnerabilities to aquatic and terrestrial ecology. These intermediate forms provide accommodations for gradual evolutionary changes over millions of years while fish acquired their limbs, lungs and other changes for the land walking. The vertebrates with terrestrial habits point where they shed essential development steps to be able to fix.

References

Journals

• Aguerri, J.A.L. and Zarattini, S., 2021. Properties of Fossil Groups of Galaxies. Universe, 7(5), p.132.
• Barrena, R., Chon, G., Böhringer, H., Méndez-Abreu, J. and Ferragamo, A., 2023. RXCJ1111. 6+ 4050 galaxy cluster: Observational evidence of a transitional fossil group. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 679, p.A147.
• Kim, H., Ko, J., Smith, R., Kim, J.W., Hwang, H.S., Song, H., Shin, J. and Yoo, J., 2022. Is A2261 a Fossil Galaxy Cluster in a Transitional Dynamical State?. The Astrophysical Journal, 928(2), p.170.
• Klimov, P.B., Vorontsov, D.D., Azar, D., Sidorchuk, E.A., Braig, H.R., Khaustov, A.A. and Tolstikov, A.V., 2021. A transitional fossil mite (Astigmata: Levantoglyphidae fam. n.) from the early Cretaceous suggests gradual evolution of phoresy-related metamorphosis. Scientific Reports, 11(1), p.15113.
• Miao, X., Chu, D., Tong, J., Benton, M.J., Yu, J., Luo, L., Shu, W. and Wu, Y., 2021. Biostratigraphic significance and geometric morphometrics of Euestheria gutta (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Spinicaudata): An index fossil of continental Permian–Triassic transitional beds. Geological Journal, 56(12), pp.6176-6188.
• Thibon, F., Goedert, J., Séon, N., Weppe, L., Martin, J.E., Amiot, R., Adnet, S., Lambert, O., Bustamante, P., Lécuyer, C. and Vigier, N., 2022. The ecology of modern and fossil vertebrates revisited by lithium isotopes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 599, p.117840.