Everything about Paleontologists totally explained
» Palaeontology redirects here. For the
scientific journal, see
Palaeontology (journal).
Paleontology,
palaeontology or
palæontology (from Greek:
παλαιό (palaeo), "old, ancient";
όν (on), "being"; and
logos, "speech, thought") is the study of
prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of
fossils. This includes the study of
body fossils, tracks (
ichnites),
burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised
faeces (
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
ancient life in its context 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 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
life forms 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 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
paleobiologist, 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,
Mary and
Richard Leakey,
Raymond Dart,
Robert Broom,
C.K. 'Bob' Brain,
Kenneth Oakley,
Robert Ardrey and
Donald Johanson. In recent times,
Mongolian paleontologist
Rinchen Barsbold has done much to expand our understanding of
dinosaur and
bird evolution.
Paul Sereno of the
University of Chicago has made several important dinosaur finds in areas such as the
Sahara, where fossil hunting has been uncommon.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Paleontologists'.
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