< p >你的类比埋一盒不是像你想的那么准确。它需要特定的沉积条件的有机体变成化石:被埋在土壤远远不够。< / p > < p >石化等,最终,化石嵌在它的地层,即构造事件(按照你的建议),将取代化石也将取代它周围的地层。< / p > < p >无论你是正确的问题继承的原则,,事情可能发生在化石嵌在其地层。就是你有三个常见的现象:返工,downworking和时间平均。< / p > < p > <强>修订< / >强,更常见的现象。它可以发生在最初包含化石的沉积物被侵蚀。沉积物中含有什么因此再次把系统中,需要溶解或re-sedimented新的地层。< / p > < p > < >强Downworking < /强>是(我认为)更频繁的在海洋环境中:沉积物之前合并,化石下沉,变成一个和松散但年长的沉积物。< / p > < p > < >强时间平均。< / >强要花很多的时间巩固成层的沉积物,在沉积物生物仍继续下雨。层将因此不能代表一个时间点,但一段时间对应于沉积物的时间来巩固。< / p > < p >的三个现象,只有改造是有问题的(另外两只是温和时间位移,很少超过两个10 ^ 5年)美元。 However it is usually manageable to recognize the fact that a fossil was reworked (different alteration compared to other fossils in the same stratum for instance, and if the sediment was already consolidated when the fossil was displaced you will find bits of the old sediment still attached to it). There is also another problem (regarding your example of a Jurassic species deposited in South America and the same species deposited in Europe), which is biogeography: a species does not appear and disappear at the same time everywhere on Earth (see illustration below). In most cases the time discrepancy is small but in some case it isn't: this is what we call, in biostratigraphy, diachronism.
Taken from Peter Sadler's short course on biochronology. The grey area represent the taxon extent in time and space.