fossil record

fossil record (plural fossil records)

1. The collective record of biological development that is reflected in the fossilized remains of organisms through geological history.

   Paleontologists study the fossil record.

   • 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 79:

     But the more that was learned about the fossil record, the more difficult it was to maintain that an entire age, spanning tens of millions of years, had somehow or other gone missing.

2. The record of preserved evidence for a single species or taxon.

   Trilobites have an extensive fossil record.