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 – A Bestselling Book on the Natural History of Mammalian Evolution

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

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

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles: The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs

The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times

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Lists

Mary Anning's Curiosity by Monica Kulling

Fanny and the Monsters and Other Stories by Penelope Lively

A Bone from a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson

Paleontology in Children's Fiction

38 books — 9 voters

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

146 books — 102 voters

A Brief History of Time by Stephen W. Hawking

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

History of the Universe and Earth

154 books — 79 voters

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

Best Books for Dinosaur Enthusiasts

55 books — 9 voters

The Great Dinosaur Debate by Robert T. Bakker

T. Rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Álvarez

The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs by Gregory S. Paul

The Best Non-fiction Dinosaur Books

144 books — 97 voters

When Life Nearly Died by Michael J. Benton

Life on a Young Planet by Andrew H. Knoll

The 10 Books You Absolutely Must Read to Understand the History of Earth

29 books — 24 voters

Related Genres

Science
Biology
Archaeology
Dinosaurs
Geology

Fossils
Scieñce
Sciençe
Fossil Hunting

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Quotes Tagged “Palaeontology”

“ After some of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth history desecrated ecosystems, dinosaurs became more diverse, more abundant, and larger. Completely new dinosaur species were evolving and spreading into new environments, while other groups of animals went extinct. As the world was going to hell, dinosaurs were thriving, somehow taking advantage of the chaos around them. ”
― Steve Brusatte, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World

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“ These are feathers. Not the quill-pen feathers that make up the wings of today’s birds but simpler ones that look more like strands of hair. These were the ancestral structures that bird feathers evolved from, and it is now known that many (and perhaps all) dinosaurs had them. Yutyrannus and Dilong establish beyond a doubt that tyrannosaurs were among these feathered dinosaurs. Unlike birds, tyrannosaurs certainly were not flying. Instead, they probably used their feathers for display or to keep ...more ”
― Steve Brusatte, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World

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