Since phylogenetic trees are based on common ancestries and connect classification with evolutionary history, what types of organisms are most likely to appear in the fossil record?

Question

Describe the fossils abundance, length of existence, physical characteristics and places they would be found.

Answer 1

Organisms that are most likely to appear in the fossil record are those that belong to species that are abundant, that persist for a long period of geologic time, and that have entirely hard bodies or at least some hard body parts. Because the process of fossilization involves the deposit of sediments and the finer the sediment deposited the likelier fossilization is to occur, fossils are most often found in ancient waterways and seabeds, and thus most fossils found are of marine and aquatic organisms or organisms that died and were washed out to sea or covered by riverine sediments.