fossil record

"This innovative technique helps us to read the deep time fossil record in a new way," she said.

With this telescope, they also found two smaller galaxy clusters within Abell 3667 that are in the process of merging, another piece of the fossil record of this cluster's history.

Today, the Mountain Pygmy-possum population is thriving in that environment -- consistent with predictions drawn from the fossil record.

"Despite the diversity of pseudosuchians, they remain poorly understood, as fossils of some their lineages are extremely rare in the fossil record," Dr. Müller says.

The fossil record shows that about three-quarters of Earth’s species, including all of the non-bird dinosaurs, went extinct.