How did they know what we were missing in the first place? Apparently, scientists can reconstruct the Earth’s history through fossils, rocks, and other trinkets preserved in the ground. Experts have found a giant lapse in the Earth’s history through the lack of evidence. The missing time, called The Great Unconformity, exceeds one billion years in some places. This means that some 550 million-year-old rocks are found that date back 1.7 billion years, but no other traces from the years in between were found. Learn more about this missing chunk of time here.
Image credit: Tim Hart
BTW, your copy/paste missed a few words in this sentence: "550 million-year-old rocks sitting atop ancient layers that date back 1.7 billion years" (probably because of the link in the original text).
Oh, no! Their guy got the presidency. Things are kinda crappy!Oh, yay! Our guy is president now! Things are still kinda crappy.
SSDD.