Fossils are preserved remains of animals and plants buried under sediments. Many see these fossils in museums, but we don’t always realize the significance fossils have in understanding our history and taxonomy.
The Darwinian Revolution used fossils to understand the world. If you are interested, you may want to read Taking the History of Science Really Seriously, containing more details on the Darwinian Revolution. Fossils also tell us a lot about other animals, even those that have become extinct, like the dinosaurs. So here are some of the most important fossils in the world:
1. Lucy
Lucy is one of the most famous fossils in the world. It may seem odd to name a fossil by Lucy. Still, it is a 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis, one of the predecessors of humans who roam the earth today. It was even named after the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Until today, it is one of the complete skeletons found, with around 40% of all its bones intact.
2. Archaeopteryx
The infamous Archaeopteryx was studied by Charles Darwin and published in his book, “The Origin of Species.” This fossil was found in limestone deposits in Germany and was termed as the “missing link” between dinosaurs and birds. The “missing link” means that this creature was like a transition species, which has the characteristics of a dinosaur and a modern-day bird.
3. Metaspriggina
The Metaspriggina is the oldest known fish known to the man discovered in Canada. These fossils were said to have existed 505 million years ago, which show intricate details of the animal’s facial features. This discovery was made in 2014 and was the first fish fossils from the Cambrian Explosion. The eyes and facial features are well-defined, with arches near the front of the body, implying the evidence of jaws.
4. Megalosaurus
The partial femur of the Megalosaurus was discovered in England by a professor at Oxford University. This femur was said to have belonged to an equivalent of a giant human. Though the Megalosaurus was discovered in the 1670s, it wasn’t until the 1820s that it was correctly identified as a dinosaur. It was the first dinosaur to be baptized and studied.
5. Hadrosaurus
In terms of history, the Hadrosaurus is very important since it was the first nearly complete fossil discovered in the United States. It was discovered on the East Coast instead of the West and lived in North America. Aside from that, the Hadrosaurus was said to belong to a large family of duck-billed dinosaurs.
6. Borealopelta Markmitchell
This herbivore was said to live 110 million years ago in Canada. This fossil is significant because this dinosaur looks like a pineapple that is 5.5 meters long and had to weigh 1.2 tons. This fossil is significant since it shows what armored dinosaurs would look like. This fossil was a rare terrestrial animal that was discovered offshore.
7. Child of Turkana
This fossil is famous and vital since it is one of the complete fossils missing its hands and feet. Scientists call this the Homo ergaster, an earlier population of the Homo erectus discovered in Kenya, Africa. It is 160 cm which indicates that Hominids have become taller than Lucy.
8. Diplodocus
The Diplodocus was excavated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was said to have belonged to relatively small ornithopods or slightly larger theropods. The discovery of the Diplodocus was said to have begun the era of giant sauropods, allowing people to view the dinosaurs to a much larger extent than it was ever imagined before.
9. Mosasaurus
These were found as large bones found in Central and Western Europe in lakes and river banks. The discovery of the mosasaurs is a crucial marine reptile since it was the first fossil to be identified by Georges Cuvier. Though the Mosasaurus is extinct, it was then that scientists first coined the idea of extinction – some species live and die, and creatures would roam the face of the earth long before humans ever existed.
10. Halszkaraptor
If you look at how the Halszkaraptor looks, you might wonder why something that looks like a duck may seem so important. However, the first fossil discovered seemed to look like a bird. Because of this, scientists started to study how birds had emerged. Furthermore, we now understand that birds have descended from dinosaurs because of this fossil.
11. Iguanodon
The Iguanodon is the second dinosaur after the Megalosaurus to receive the formal name of its genus. This quite controversial fossil caused a debate on whether or not reptiles have existed. Some claimed that these bones were of a rhinoceros. However, it was later proven that the Iguanodon is a dinosaur that lived at the beginning of the Cretaceous period in Europe.
