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Living fossil - Definition and Overview |
| Related Words: Abode, Active, Acute, Advowson, Aggressive, Alight, Alimony, Alive, Animate, Animated, Animation, Ardent, Being, Benefice |
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Living fossil is a term for any living species which closely resembles a species otherwise only known from fossils, i.e., as if the fossil had "come to life".
Some living fossils are species that were known from fossils before living representatives were discovered (the most famous example of this is the coelacanth fish, Latimeria chalumnae). Others are a single living species with no close living relatives, but which is the survivor of a large and widespread group in the fossil record (the best-known example of this is the ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba).
 
Note the similarity between the 170 million year old fossil Ginkgo leaves on the left, and the living plant on the right.
Other living fossils are the horsetails, nut clams (Ennucula superba), Lingula anatina (an inarticulate brachiopod), the tuatara reptile, the snout-nosed nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis frog, the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), and the monotremes (the platypus and enchidnas).
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