<P> The combination of continental drift and evolution can sometimes be used to predict what will be found in the fossil record . Glossopteris is an extinct species of seed fern plants from the Permian . Glossopteris appears in the fossil record around the beginning of the Permian on the ancient continent of Gondwana . Continental drift explains the current biogeography of the tree . Present day Glossopteris fossils are found in Permian strata in southeast South America, southeast Africa, all of Madagascar, northern India, all of Australia, all of New Zealand, and scattered on the southern and northern edges of Antarctica . During the Permian, these continents were connected as Gondwana (see figure 4c) in agreement with magnetic striping, other fossil distributions, and glacial scratches pointing away from the temperate climate of the South Pole during the Permian . </P> <P> The history of metatherians (the clade containing marsupials and their extinct, primitive ancestors) provides an example of how evolutionary theory and the movement of continents can be combined to make predictions concerning fossil stratigraphy and distribution . The oldest metatherian fossils are found in present - day China . Metatherians spread westward into modern North America (still attached to Eurasia) and then to South America, which was connected to North America until around 65 mya . Marsupials reached Australia via Antarctica about 50 mya, shortly after Australia had split off suggesting a single dispersion event of just one species . Evolutionary theory suggests that the Australian marsupials descended from the older ones found in the Americas . Geologic evidence suggests that between 30 and 40 million years ago South America and Australia were still part of the Southern Hemisphere super continent of Gondwana and that they were connected by land that is now part of Antarctica . Therefore, when combining the models, scientists could predict that marsupials migrated from what is now South America, through Antarctica, and then to present - day Australia between 40 and 30 million years ago . A first marsupial fossil of the extinct family Polydolopidae was found on Seymour Island on the Antarctic Peninsula in 1982 . Further fossils have subsequently been found, including members of the marsupial orders Didelphimorphia (opossum) and Microbiotheria, as well as ungulates and a member of the enigmatic extinct order Gondwanatheria, possibly Sudamerica ameghinoi . </P> <P> The history of the camel provides an example of how fossil evidence can be used to reconstruct migration and subsequent evolution . The fossil record indicates that the evolution of camelids started in North America (see figure 4e), from which, six million years ago, they migrated across the Bering Strait into Asia and then to Africa, and 3.5 million years ago through the Isthmus of Panama into South America . Once isolated, they evolved along their own lines, giving rise to the Bactrian camel and dromedary in Asia and Africa and the llama and its relatives in South America . Camelids then became extinct in North America at the end of the last ice age . </P> <P> Examples for the evidence for evolution often stem from direct observation of natural selection in the field and the laboratory . This section is unique in that it provides a narrower context concerning the process of selection . All of the examples provided prior to this have described the evidence that evolution has occurred, but has not provided the major underlying mechanism: natural selection . This section explicitly provides evidence that natural selection occurs, has been replicated artificially, and can be replicated in laboratory experiments . </P>

Which of these provides evidence of the common ancestry of life