wolfgang784 t1_issvign wrote on October 18, 2022 at 1:41 PM

Educated guesses based on other info and closest living relatives.

Check out dinosaurs for example - first we thought they had scales, then we thought they had skin and feathers, then we thought it might have been a combo of the two, then we thought some of each existed - the theory evolves over time and we likely won't ever know the 110% true facts of the matter.

There's also multiple examples of skeletons being put together incorrectly or a mix of several creatures (sometimes even from drastically different time periods) being combined and so on. So we aren't even always right that X creature existed at all or was even shaped the same.

throwawaymysocks t1_isv2cma wrote on October 18, 2022 at 10:23 PM

An example of how paleontologists look at modern animals is the theory that triceratops form a circle with the herd to ward off predators and protect their young similar to how elephants and muskox do today. We have little evidence to support that triceratops actually did this besides the fact that similar large herbivores with horns/tusks on their head also do this.

hotinhawaii t1_isv01ll wrote on October 18, 2022 at 10:07 PM

yes, but over time as we have accumulated more fossils, many of those mistakes from the past have been corrected and so we know MUCH more now than ever before. And the accuracy of the conclusions reached by examining the fossils improves over time.