1. Support for the theory of evolution

2. Fossil Record Provides evidence of Earth's changing life
The oldest fossil evidence of life consists of chemical traces in rocks from Greenland that are 3.8 billion years old
Fossils of species that became extinct-species that no longer exist -help scientists reconstruct the past

3. Fossil Record

4. Fossil Evidence
Fossil evidence supports the hypothesis that whales, which have no hind limbs, evolved from land-dwelling ancestors that had four limbs.
Paleontologists digging in Egypt and Pakistan have identified ancient whales that had hind limb bones

5. Similarities in Structure
Homologous Structure: similar structure found in more than one species that share a common ancestor
-Suggests common ancestor

6. Similarities in Structure
Vestigial Structure: remnants of structures that may have had important functions in an ancestral species, but have no clear function in some of the modern descendants
For example, the whales of today lack hind limbs, but some have small vestigial hipbones probably derived from their four-footed ancestors
Natural selection would favor the survival and reproduction of individuals with genes for reduced versions of those structures