Palaeontology

Palaeontology or paleontology (/ˌpeɪlɪɒnˈtɒlədʒi/, /ˌpeɪlɪənˈtɒlədʒi/ or /ˌpælɪɒnˈtɒlədʒi/, /ˌpælɪənˈtɒlədʒi/) is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene Epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments (their palaeoecology). Palaeontologist observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anat Palaeontology or paleontology (/ˌpeɪlɪɒnˈtɒlədʒi/, /ˌpeɪlɪənˈtɒlədʒi/ or /ˌpælɪɒnˈtɒlədʒi/, /ˌpælɪənˈtɒlədʒi/) is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene Epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments (their palaeoecology). Palaeontologist observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek παλαιός, palaios, i.e. "old, ancient", ὄν, on (gen. ontos), i.e. "being, creature" and λόγος, logos, i.e. "speech, thought, study".

Palaeontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of anatomically modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics and engineering. Use of all these techniques has enabled palaeontologists to discover much of the evolutionary history of life, almost all the way back to when Earth became capable of supporting life, about 3,800 million years ago. As knowledge has increased, palaeontology has developed specialised sub-divisions, some of which focus on different types of fossil organisms while others study ecology and environmental history, such as ancient climates.

Body fossils and trace fossils are the principal types of evidence about ancient life, and geochemical evidence has helped to decipher the evolution of life before there were organisms large enough to leave body fossils. Estimating the dates of these remains is essential but difficult: sometimes adjacent rock layers allow radiometric dating, which provides absolute dates that are accurate to within 0.5%, but more often palaeontologists have to rely on relative dating by solving the "jigsaw puzzles" of biostratigraphy. Classifying ancient organisms is also difficult, as many do not fit well into the Linnean taxonomy that is commonly used for classifying living organisms, and palaeontologists more often use cladistics to draw up evolutionary "family trees". The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of molecular phylogenetics, which investigates how closely organisms are related by measuring how similar the DNA is in their genomes. Molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the molecular clock on which such estimates depend. ...more

Palaeontology Books

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us

Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology (The Rediscovered Series)

Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles: The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs

When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time

The Great Dinosaur Debate: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction

The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times

More palaeontology books...

Lists

Technological Slavery by Theodore John Kaczynski

Anti-Tech Revolution by Theodore John Kaczynski

Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore John Kaczynski

The Human Animal

149 books — 103 voters

Mary Anning's Curiosity by Monica Kulling

Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon by Jeannine Atkins

Stone Girl, Bone Girl by Laurence Anholt

Mary Anning - Fiction & Non-Fiction

23 books — 13 voters

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

T. Rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Álvarez

Learn about prehistoric life

55 books — 48 voters

Best Books for Dinosaur Enthusiasts

65 books — 10 voters

The How and Why Wonder Book of Dinosaurs by Darlene Geis

Dinosaurs of the Land, Sea, and Air by Modern Publishing

Paleontology and Educational Dinosaur Picture Guides for Kids

24 books — 2 voters

The fossil feud between E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh by Elizabeth Noble Shor

Dinosaur Bone War by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

Battle of the Dinosaur Bones by Rebecca L. Johnson

Cope vs. Marsh: A History of the Bone Wars

11 books — 2 voters

Related Genres

Science
Biology
Archaeology
Dinosaurs
Geology

Fossils
Scieñce
Sciençe
Fossil Hunting

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Quotes Tagged “Palaeontology”

“ Many a dinosaur was probably swept away by floodwaters or entombed by mud avalanches. But the megamonsoons also had another effect. They helped divide Pangea into environmental provinces, characterized by different amounts of precipitation, varying severity of the monsoonal winds, and different temperatures. The equatorial region was extremely hot and humid, a tropical hell that would make summer in today’s Amazon seem a trip to Santa’s workshop by comparison. Then there were vast stretches of d ...more ”
― Steve Brusatte, The Age of Dinosaurs: The Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Remarkable Animals

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“ THE JURASSIC PERIOD marks the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs proper. Yes, the first true dinosaurs entered the scene at least 30 million years before the Jurassic began. But as we’ve seen, these earlier Triassic dinosaurs had not even a remote claim to being dominant. Then Pangea began to split, and the dinosaurs emerged from the ashes and found themselves with a new, much emptier world, which they proceeded to conquer. Over the first few tens of millions of years of the Jurassic, dinosaurs d ...more ”
― Steve Brusatte, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World

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