'Living Fossils' Aren't Really a Thing

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Crocodiles, horseshoe crabs and tuatara are animals that have persisted for millions of years, said to have gone unchanged since the days of the dinosaurs. But even the most ancient-looking organisms show us that evolution is always at work.

Special thanks to Nobumichi Tamura for allowing us to use his paleoart. Check out his portfolio here: http://spinops.blogspot.com

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios

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References:
http://www.nature.com/news/oldest-homo-sapiens-fossil-claim-rewrites-our-species-history-1.22114
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7657/full/nature22336.html
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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168952508000036?via%3Dihub
http://www.cell.com/trends/genetics/fulltext/S0168-9525(08)00003-6?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0168952508000036%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2396218?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
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