摘要
Explaining the history of life through geological deep time is undoubtedly a fascinating and challenging task that intrigued scientists even before the inception of Darwin’s theory.The fossil record,bearing witness to the changing of life and the continuous origination of new organisms in the course of time,on one hand represents the primary evidence for evolution,and on the other provides hints for deciphering dynamic processes and factors shaping the long,multifaceted evolutionary history of the Biosphere.Looking at the past,therefore,is of crucial importance in the never-ending cognitive process of deciphering the way we came to be here.
