An index fossils is a common, widely distributed fossil that is typically found in the same geologic layers or range.[i] It can then be used to give a relative age of rock layers and other fossils since they know what layer it usually comes from and therefore how old it is.
Index fossils are mainly found in sedimentary rock. How old are they? Can we trust their estimated ages? Are they consistently found in the same place? Are index fossils being found alive today?
“Often, the layers of rock can be dated by the types of fossils they contain… Scientists have determined the relative times of appearance and disappearance of many kinds of organisms from the location of their fossils within the sedimentary rock layers.”[ii]
The fossils preserved in the fossil record show the history and evolution of organisms throughout time. “The stretch of geologic history is commonly referred to as “deep time.”” By charting the geologic layers and their fossils, we can understand the history of the earth better and the process of evolution better. The oldest rock is estimated at over 4 billion years old and the oldest fossils being about 3.5 billion years old. The history of life can be charted from evidence in the fossil record as follows: little bacteria to algae to soft bodied organisms to an explosion of life called the Cambrian explosion to land plants and fishes to amphibians to reptiles to mammals and birds to finally everything that exists today including humans.[iii]
Common index fossils include shelled organisms like Ammonites, brachiopods, graptolites, corals, nanofossils (microscopic fossils), trilobites, mollusks and more.[iv]
Check back tomorrow for the Creation Answer. Thanks again for your constructive help.
by Brian Mariani and others
Is the above correct? Do you evolutionists agree with this position? I have tried to write it as you believe it. Do you have any disagreements or concerns or additions?
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[i] Index Fossils, Enchanted Learning, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/IndexFossils.shtml, accessed October 8, 2013.
[ii] Dating Rock Layers, Genesis Park, http://www.genesispark.com/exhibits/fossils/dating/, accessed October 8, 2013. Quoting Glencoe, Biology Textbook, 1994, pp. 306-307.
[iii] Deep Time, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/, accessed October 8, 2013.
[iv] Roger Patterson, Evolution Exposed: Earth Science, Chapter 6: Geologic Column, January 20, 2011, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee2/geologic-column, accessed October 8, 2013.
Index Fossils, Enchanted Learning, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/IndexFossils.shtml, accessed October 8, 2013.