[Squarel]

Very nice visualization, but the conditions necessary for fossilization should also be considered when weighting the types of species and drawing conclusions.

The conditions for fossilization occur with lower frequency in terrestrial ecosystems compared to aquatic systems for example, so even though complex life originated in marine ecosystems, if there had been more terrestrial species than aquatic species, we would not necessarily expect to find this in fossilization as far as I know.

Plant evolution is something that is extremely interesting to me, and I liked that part of the graphic. The arms race in ecosystems (With the classic example being rainforests) driving biodiversity, and the evolution of plants from gymnosperms to angiosperms in response to this (among other factors) is fascinating!

[d2fn]

"Paleontologists are sure that the fossil record is biased."...

"Land animals are probably very poorly represented as well. For example, most animals that are now alive, or ever have lived, are insects, but the fossil record of insects is poor."...

http://www.k5geosource.org/1content/1sc/fossils/pg6.html

[d2fn]

Excellent points! Thank you.