Paleontology
Paleontology (sometimes spelled
palaeontology) is the study of the developing history of
life on Earth, including ancient
plants and
animals, based on their
fossil record (evidence of their
prehistoric existence as typically preserved in
sedimentary rocks). This includes the study of body
fossils, tracks (
ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilized
feces (
coprolites) and chemical residues.
Modern paleontology sets
ancient life in its contexts by studying how long-term physical changes of global geography ('
paleogeography') and climate ('
paleoclimate') have affected the
evolution of life, how ecosystems have responded to these changes and have changed 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 â€" fields concerned with living creatures and how they interact.
The major subdivisions of paleontology include
paleozoology (animals),
paleobotany (plants) and
micropaleontology (microfossils). Paleozoologists may specialize 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 utilizes the same classic
binomial nomenclature scheme, devised for the biology of living things by the mid-
18th century Swedish 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 organized study of paleontology dates from the late 18th century.
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A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. |
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 (self-taught) early paleontologist. She found several landmark fossils, in her home town of
Lyme Regis and, although self-taught, collected and described them in a very systematic way.
Thomas Jefferson took a keen interest in mammoth bones. Besides looking at mammal teeth and digging up
penguins,
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 Stanley,
Stephen Jay Gould,
David Raup 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,
Mary and
Richard Leakey and
Donald Johanson.
Other important figures include the
Englishman William Smith, who first noted that similar fossil sequences were found regionally and
Georges Cuvier, who initiated the study of ancient animals based on living animals. Notable
American figures include
Edward Drinker Cope,
Othniel Charles Marsh,
Paul Sereno,
Henry Fairfield Osborn,
Louis Agassiz,
Charles Walcott and
Roy Chapman Andrews. Distinguished European paleontologists include the
Englishmen Thomas Huxley,
William Buckland and
Richard Owen,
Finn Björn Kurtén,
Czech paleoentomologists
Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger and
Jarmila Kukalova-Peck,
Belgian Louis Dollo and
French Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Franz Nopcsa von Felsö-Szilvás is often credited for being the founder of
palaeobiology, a field of inquiry dealing with the biological and ecological functions that can be deduced from fossils. Elsewhere,
South African John T. Robinson discovered the nearly complete fossil skull of
Australopithecus africanus. More modern figures in paleontology include
John Ostrom,
Bob Bakker,
David B. Weishampel,
Jack Horner and
Alex Rasnitsyn.
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Timeline of geography, paleontology,
biology*
Important publications in paleontology*
Dinosaurnews the free dinosaur zine (very popular site, with the latest international news about dinosaurs).
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Meganeura Website about insect evolution and fossil record.
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International Palaeoentomological Society*
Smithsonian's Paleobiology website: a good introduction*
University of California Museum of Paleontology FAQ About Paleontology*
Krapina Man
