Written in stone: fossils, genes and evo-devo
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026

In Situ Hybridization Techniques for Paraffin-Embedded Adult Coral Samples
Published on: August 31, 2018
1Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47401, USA. raffr@indiana.edu
Abstract:
Fossils give evo-devo a past. They inform phylogenetic trees to show the direction of evolution of developmental features, and they can reveal ancient body plans. Fossils also provide the primary data that are used to date past events, including divergence times needed to estimate molecular clocks, which provide rates of developmental evolution. Fossils can set boundaries for hypotheses that are generated from living developmental systems, and for predictions of ancestral development and morphologies. Finally, although fossils rarely yield data on developmental processes directly, informative examples occur of extraordinary preservation of soft body parts, embryos and genomic information.
Related Concept Videos
The Fossil Record
The Evidence for Evolution
What is Evolutionary History?
Eukaryotic Evolution
Contrary to the endosymbiont theory, the eukaryote-first hypothesis proposes that the simpler prokaryotic and...
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...

