You cannot "look back at the fossil record", we can only look at fossils in the present and put our interpretation on them. If a bone is found in the dirt, all you know for sure is that something probably died!

The number of fossil species discovered is estimated at about 250,000, while there are about 3 million living species (depending on classification).

The huge exhibits of dinosaurs that often greet you in large museums are just models, based on a relatively small number of fossilised remains.

For the full article see Where are all the human fossils?

So, the fossil record is limited and doesn't show a complete history of every species. There are different opinions about the formation of fossils. One of the glaring omissions within the discovered fossils are any intermediate links or transitional fossils, much to the consternation of Darwin and modern evolutionists.

Typically, when a fossil is discovered, the question is asked "What type of rock was it found in?" and then the fossil is dated according to the Geologic Column (by inference). Similarly, if a new strata of sedimentary rock is uncovered containing fossils, the question is asked "What type of fossils does it contain?" and then the rock is dated according to the Geologic Column (by inference). Clearly this is circular reasoning, without any direct measurement of dates. Frequently fossils are found in the "wrong layer", or layers of rocks are in the wrong order, but the basis is rarely questioned.

For example, Coelacanth fossils are found in marine deposits below dinosaurs and in other marine layers about the same as dinosaurs. It was thought that the coelacanth became extinct about 70 million years ago, because fossils are not found higher than this. However, in 1938 living populations were found in the Indian Ocean!

The "Cambrian Explosion" is another difficulty for evolution - fully-formed "modern" life forms appear "instantly" in Cambrian rocks, with few, if any precursors. Of course, this observation is consistent with a Creation model.