THE MATERIAL WORLD - BBC Radio 4

Presented by Quentin Cooper with guests Dr Mark Purnell from the University of Leicester and Dr Dave Martill from the University of Portsmouth.

Preservation

It's often said that humans live only in the present, and find it hard to even peer a few hours into the future. But when it comes to the past, our vision is considerably sharper.

Techniques carefully constructed over hundreds of years now allow us to look literally hundreds of millions of years into the past

The fossil record, a sequential line of preserved remains, forms the backbone for many of the modern day theories and explanation.

But how reliable is this evidence? How do such stunningly preserved fossils come about, and even with them to view, are we trying to fill in the plot of an entire book after only reading the first sentence?

Dr Mark Purnell from the University of Leicester and Dr Dave Martill from the University of Portsmouth join Quentin Cooper to dig a little deeper into the fossil record.

To listen to this interview click here.