Paleontology
Palæontology or paleontology is the study of fossils of living things, and their phylogeny (evolutionary relationships).[1] It depends on basic sciences such as zoology, botany and historical geology. The term palaeobiology implies that the study will include the palaeoecology of the groups in question.
In palaeozoology, the evolution of those animal phyla with fossil records are studied. In palaeobotany, fossil plants are studied. In historical geology the formation, sequence and dating of rock strata give information about past environments.
A fossil is any kind of life that is more than ten thousand years old and preserved in any form that we can study today.[2] The fossil record is always incomplete, and later discoveries may extend the known survival of a group. See Lazarus taxon.
Some palaeontologists study fossils of microorganisms, living things that are too small to see without a microscope, while other palaeontologists study fossils of giant dinosaurs.
- Vertebrate palaeontology: the palaeontology of vertebrate animals
- Invertebrate palaeontology: the palaeontology of invertebrate animals
Paleontology Media
Bust of the paleontologist Georges Cuvier (left) and a cast skeleton of Palaeotherium magnum (named by Cuvier in 1804, right), Cuvier Museum of Montbéliard
Analyses using engineering techniques show that Tyrannosaurus had a devastating bite, but raise doubts about its running ability.
This illustration of an Indian elephant jaw and a mammoth jaw (top) is from Cuvier's 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants.
Georges Cuvier's 1812 sketch of a skeletal and muscle reconstruction of Anoplotherium commune. This sketch was amongst the first instances of prehistoric animal reconstructions based on fossil remains.
First mention of the word palæontologie, as coined in January 1822 by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in his Journal de physique
Haikouichthys, from about 518 million years ago in China, may be the earliest known fish
This Marrella specimen illustrates how clear and detailed the fossils from the Burgess Shale lagerstätte are.
This wrinkled "elephant skin" texture is a trace fossil of a non-stromatolite microbial mat. The image shows the location, in the Burgsvik beds of Sweden.
Opabinia sparked modern interest in the Cambrian explosion
At about 13 centimetres (5.1 in) the Early Cretaceous Yanoconodon was longer than the average mammal of the time.
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Related pages
References
- ↑ Prothero, Donald R. 2007. Evolution: what the fossils say and why it matters. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-231-13962-5
- ↑ Levin, Harold L. 2005. The Earth through time. 8th ed, Wiley, N.Y. Chapter 4: The fossil record.