fossil record

English

Noun

fossil record (plural fossil records)

1. The collective record of biological development that is reflected in the fossilized remains of organisms through geological history.

   Paleontologists study the fossil record.

   • 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 79:

     But the more that was learned about the fossil record, the more difficult it was to maintain that an entire age, spanning tens of millions of years, had somehow or other gone missing.

2. The record of preserved evidence for a single species or taxon.

   Trilobites have an extensive fossil record.

Translations

the collective record of fossils

Afrikaans: fossielrekord (af) Galician: rexistro fósil m Italian: registro fossile m Russian: рее́стр окаменелостей m (rejéstr okamenelostej) Spanish: registro fósil m Ukrainian: викопні знахідки (vykopni znaxidky)

record for a single species or taxon