Paleontology

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Palaeontology redirects here. For the scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal). Paleontology', palaeontology or palæontology (from Greek: paleo, "ancient"; ontos, "being"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of prehistory life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues.Studies of prehistoric hominins, their culture and their behaviour are the purview of two other disciplines, archaeology and paleoanthropology.

Background Modern paleontology sets Prehistoric life in its contexts by studying how long-term physical changes of global geography Palaeogeography and climate paleoclimate have affected the evolution of life, how ecosystems have responded to these changes and have adapted the planetary environment in turn and how these mutual responses have affected today's patterns of biodiversity. Hence, paleontology overlaps with geology (the study of rocks and rock formations) as well as with botany, biology, zoology and ecology – fields concerned with Organism and how they interact.

The major subdivisions of paleontology include paleozoology (animals), paleobotany (plants) and micropaleontology (microfossils). Paleozoologists may specialise in invertebrate paleontology, which deals with animals without backbones or in vertebrate paleontology, dealing with fossils of animals with backbones, including fossil hominids (paleoanthropology). Micropaleontologists study microscopic fossils, including organic-walled microfossils whose study is called palynology.

There are many developing specialties such as paleobiology, paleoecology, ichnology (the study of tracks and burrows) and taphonomy (the study of what happens to organisms after they expire). Major areas of study include the correlation of rock strata with their geologic ages and the study of evolution of lifeforms.

Paleontology utilises the same classic binomial nomenclature scheme, devised for the biology of living things by the mid-18th century Swedish people biologist Carolus Linnaeus and increasingly sets these species in a genealogical framework, showing their degrees of interrelatedness using the still somewhat controversial technique of 'cladistics'.

The primary economic importance of paleontology lies in the use of fossils to determine the age and nature of the rocks that contain them or the layers above or below. This information is vital to the mining industry and especially the petroleum industry. Simply looking at the fossils contained in a rock remains one of the fastest and most accurate means of telling how old that rock is.

Fossils were known by primitive humans and were sometimes identified correctly as the remains of ancient lifeforms. The organised study of paleontology dates from the late 18th century. For a more complete historical overview see the article History of paleontology.

Notable paleontologists History includes a number of prominent paleontologists. Charles Darwin collected fossils of South American mammals during his trip on the Beagle and examined petrified forests in Patagonia. Mary Anning was a notable early paleontologist. She found several landmark fossils, in her home town of Lyme Regis. Although self-taught, she collected and described them in a very systematic way. William Buckland, Richard Owen, Gideon Mantell, Georges Cuvier and Thomas Huxley were important early pioneers, in the field of paleontology. Thomas Jefferson took a keen interest in mammoth bones. Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh waged a famously fierce competition known as the Bone Wars in the late 19th century that involved some questionable practices, but which significantly advanced the understanding of the natural history of North America and vertebrate paleontology. Professor Earl Douglass of the Carnegie University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opened the fossil quarry protected today by Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. Douglass' fossils are in several Natural History Museums. Meanwhile, Baron Franz Nopcsa, a pioneer Paleobiology, argued that dinosaurs might have been both warm-blooded and ancestral to birds.

Besides looking at mammal teeth and unearthing penguin skeletons, George Gaylord Simpson played a crucial role in bringing together ideas from biology, paleontology and genetics, to help create the 'Modern Synthesis' of evolutionary biology. His book "Tempo and Mode" is a classic in the field. Prominent names in invertebrate paleontology include Steven M. Stanley, Stephen Jay Gould, David Raup, Rousseau H. Flower and Jack Sepkoski, who have done much to expand our understanding of long-term patterns in the evolution of life on earth. Large names in the field of paleoanthropology include Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey and Richard Leakey, Raymond Dart, Robert Broom, Charles Kimberlin Brain, Kenneth Oakley, Robert Ardrey and Donald Johanson. In recent times, Mongols paleontologist Rinchen Barsbold has done much to expand our understanding of dinosaur and bird evolution. Paul Sereno of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago has made several important dinosaur finds in areas such as the Sahara, where fossil hunting has been uncommon.

See also

Timeline of paleontology
List of publications in biology#Paleontology
Synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy
Fossils
Prehistoric life
Fossil Parks
List of Fossil Parks
Geology
Dinosaurs
Rockhounding
Mary Anning
Fossil Hunters
Fossils and the geological timescale
Fossil collecting
List of transitional fossils
List of notable fossils
List of fossil sites (with link directory)
Fossil fuels
Lazarus taxon
Elvis taxon
Paleobiology
History of paleontology
Bioerosion
Taphonomy
Ichnology

References

External links

Smithsonian's Paleobiology website: a good introduction
University of California Museum of Paleontology FAQ About Paleontology
The Paleontological Society
The Palaeontological Association
The Paleontology Portal
International Palaeoentomological Society

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pa·le·on·tol·o·gy (p l-n-t l-j) n. The study of the forms of life existing in prehistoric or geologic times, as represented by the fossils of plants, animals, and other ...