Explain the importance of fossils in deciding evolutionary relationships.

Fossils give evidence about:

(a) The organism and their paleobiology

(b) Even an organism’s behaviour can be inferred to some extent. For instance, palaeontologists have discovered a site with more than 10,000 Hadrosaurus dinosaur skeletons. This suggests that the dinosaurs were a herd animal.

(c) Fossils shed light on how animals and plants have developed over time (for instance, palaeontologists have discovered that whales had evolved from goat-sized land-dwelling animals called Pakicetus).

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