Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran
It's not just a single species that would have to hide. It would have to be at least an entire order which is unlikely. Not technically impossible for the pre KT event, but exceedingly unlikely.
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At first I tended to agree with that, but the more I think about that, the less sure I am that it's true. The fossil record is much,
much sparser than is commonly realized, compared to the total mass of life forms that have existed, over the course of the Phanerozoic. It takes the right conditions to make a fossil, a dead organism at the right time and place, and then humans have to
find that fossil, and it has to be complete enough to show the relevant traits.
As I ponder it, I begin to suspect that there might be many orders missing from our knowledge even yet, and the further back we go, the more so. Esp. since even an entire taxonomic order doesn't necessarily
have to be all that numerous in terms of member-species.
That doesn't prove such an order existed, of course, but I don't think we can rule it out with any confidence based on the fossil record, either.