New Study of Rotting Fish May Change How We Read Fossil Record

February 8, 2010

There is something fishy about fossil records according to Dr. Rob Sansom, researcher from the University of Leicester.  Sansom has concluded that scientists may have been misguided about understanding and interpreting fossil records.

His team of British researchers have been collecting live fish and putting them in boxes to watch them slowly decay.  They found that in the decomposition process, the most informative parts of the fish, such as the eyes, mouth, and tentacles, decay first.  These parts are the most telling in understanding their evolutionary position.

They conclude that past fossils may have been thought of as more primitive, and now scientists have the correct data to interpret the fossils in relation to the evolutionary tree of life.

More can be read about this story at NPR.org.