FAUNAL SUCCESSION, LAW OF

observation that assemblages of fossil plants and animals follow or succeed each other in time in a predictable manner. Sequences of successive strata and their corresponding enclosed faunas have been matched together to form a composite section detailing the history of the Earth, especially from the inception of the Cambrian Period, which began about 540 million years ago. Faunal succession occurs because evolution generally progresses from simple to complex in a nonrepetitive and orderly manner. Because members of faunas can be distinguished from one another through time and because of the wide geographic distribution of organisms on the Earth, strata from different geographic areas can be correlated with each other and dated. Faunal succession is the fundamental tool of stratigraphy and comprises the basis for the geologic time scale. Climate and conditions throughout the Earth's history can be studied using the successive groups of plants and animals because they reflect their environment.