Paleontology

Paleontology (the American spelling; the British spelling is palaeontology) is the study of the developing history of life on earth, of ancient plants and animals based on the fossil record, evidence of their existence preserved in rocks. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks, burrows, cast off parts, fossilized feces ("coprolites"), and chemical residues.

Overview

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. So paleontology overlaps with geology, the study of rocks and rock formations, and with botany, biology, zoology, and ecology, fields concerned with living creatures and how they interact. Palynology is the study of pollen, whether modern or geological.

Related Topics:
Paleogeography - Paleoclimate - Evolution - Biodiversity - Geology - Botany - Biology - Zoology - Ecology - Palynology

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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

Related Topics:
Paleozoology - Paleobotany - Micropaleontology - Invertebrate paleontology

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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.

Related Topics:
Vertebrate paleontology - Paleoanthropology - Palynology

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There are many developing specialties such as paleoecology, paleobotany, ichnology (the study of tracks and burrows) and taphonomy, the study of what happens to organisms after they expire.

Related Topics:
Paleoecology - Paleobotany - Ichnology - Taphonomy

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Major areas of study include the correlation of rock strata with their geologic ages and the study of evolution of lifeforms.

Related Topics:
Rock strata - Geologic ages - Evolution

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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".

Related Topics:
Binomial nomenclature - 18th century - Swedish - Carolus Linnaeus - Cladistics

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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 industries 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.

Related Topics:
Mining - Petroleum

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Fossils were known by primitive man 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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