Portal:Paleontology

The Palaeontology Portal

Bust of the paleontologist Georges Cuvier (left) and a cast skeleton of Palaeotherium magnum (named by Cuvier in 1804, right), Cuvier Museum of Montbéliard

Paleontology (/ˌpeɪliɒnˈtɒlədʒi, ˌpæli-, -ən-/ PAY-lee-on-TOL-ə-jee, PAL-ee-, -⁠ən-), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology). Paleontological 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 has been used since 1822 formed from Greek παλαιός ('palaios', "old, ancient"), ὄν ('on', (gen. 'ontos'), "being, creature"), and λόγος ('logos', "speech, thought, study"). Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but it 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 paleontologists to discover much of the evolutionary history of life, almost back to when Earth became capable of supporting life, nearly 4 billion years ago. As knowledge has increased, paleontology 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 paleontologists have to rely on relative dating by solving the "jigsaw puzzles" of biostratigraphy (arrangement of rock layers from youngest to oldest). Classifying ancient organisms is also difficult, as many do not fit well into the Linnaean taxonomy classifying living organisms, and paleontologists 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 the similarity of the DNA 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. (Full article...)

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Selected article on the prehistoric world and its legacies

Artist's rendition of Parasaurolophus walkeri.

Artist's rendition of Parasaurolophus walkeri.

Parasaurolophus (meaning 'near crested lizard') was a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America, about 76-73 million years ago. It was a herbivore that walked both as a biped and a quadruped. Three species are recognized: P. walkeri (the type species), P. tubicen, and the short-crested P. cyrtocristatus. Remains are known from Alberta (Canada), and New Mexico and Utah (United States). It was first described in 1922 by William Parks from a skull and partial skeleton in Alberta.

Parasaurolophus is a hadrosaur, part of a diverse family of Cretaceous dinosaurs known for their range of bizarre head adornments. This genus is known for its large, elaborate cranial crest, which at its largest forms a long curved tube projecting upwards and back from the skull. A similar crest is found on Charonosaurus from China, which may have been its closest relative. The crest has been much discussed by scientists; the consensus is that major functions included visual recognition of both species and gender, acoustic resonance, and thermoregulation. It is one of the rarer duckbills, known from only a handful of good specimens. (see more...)

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Did you know?

Diagram of benthic biotic changes during the Cambrian substrate revolution

... that a revolution in burrowing marks the base of the Cambrian period, and is followed by the Cambrian explosion of animal diversity?
... that the extinct Chamaecyparis eureka is the oldest confirmed member of the genus Chamaecyparis?
... that when first described, the extinct bird Cruschedula was thought to be a "dry-land" penguin?
... that Puppigerus, an extinct sea turtle, had a specialized jaw structure which kept it from accidentally inhaling water?
...that Kirill Eskov named a genus from the Linyphiidae spider family discovered by him in 1988 after Kikimora, a female spirit in Slavic mythology?

An illustration of the shell of Fordilla

... that both Fordilla and Pojetaia, Cambrian members of the extinct bivalve family Fordillidae, are part of the Turkish small shelly fauna?
... that, being a descendant of Pliohippus, Astrohippus is not considered to be an ancestor to modern horses?
... that the ichnogenus Chondrites (pictured) can be used as an indicator of anoxia in sediments?
... that the extinct plant species Eucommia jeffersonensis and Eucommia rolandii were both described from fossils in 1997?
... that, when described, the brown lacewing species Wesmaelius mathewesi was the most ancient member of its subfamily?

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The following are images from various paleontology-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A drawing comparing jaws was added in 1799 when Cuvier's 1796 presentation on living and fossil elephants was published. (from History of paleontology)

Image 1A drawing comparing jaws was added in 1799 when Cuvier's 1796 presentation on living and fossil elephants was published. (from History of paleontology)
Image 2Illustration from Steno's 1667 paper shows a shark head and its teeth along with a fossil tooth for comparison. (from History of paleontology)

Image 2Illustration from Steno's 1667 paper shows a shark head and its teeth along with a fossil tooth for comparison. (from History of paleontology)
Image 3Johann Jakob Scheuchzer tried to explain fossils using Biblical floods in his Herbarium of the Deluge (1709). (from History of paleontology)

Image 3Johann Jakob Scheuchzer tried to explain fossils using Biblical floods in his Herbarium of the Deluge (1709). (from History of paleontology)
Image 4A complete Anomalocaris fossil from the Burgess shale (from History of paleontology)

Image 4A complete Anomalocaris fossil from the Burgess shale (from History of paleontology)
Image 5Duria Antiquior – A more Ancient Dorset is a watercolor painted in 1830 by the geologist Henry De la Beche based on fossils found by Mary Anning. The late 18th and early 19th century was a time of rapid and dramatic changes in ideas about the history of life on earth. (from History of paleontology)

Image 5Duria Antiquior – A more Ancient Dorset is a watercolor painted in 1830 by the geologist Henry De la Beche based on fossils found by Mary Anning. The late 18th and early 19th century was a time of rapid and dramatic changes in ideas about the history of life on earth. (from History of paleontology)
Image 6Fossil of the Taung child discovered in South Africa in 1924 (from History of paleontology)

Image 6Fossil of the Taung child discovered in South Africa in 1924 (from History of paleontology)
Image 7Diagram by O.C. Marsh of the evolution of horse feet and teeth, reproduced in T. H. Huxley's 1876 book, Professor Huxley in America (from History of paleontology)

Image 7Diagram by O.C. Marsh of the evolution of horse feet and teeth, reproduced in T. H. Huxley's 1876 book, Professor Huxley in America (from History of paleontology)
Image 8Illustration of the fossil jaw of the Stonesfield mammal from Gideon Mantell's 1848 Wonders of Geology (from History of paleontology)

Image 8Illustration of the fossil jaw of the Stonesfield mammal from Gideon Mantell's 1848 Wonders of Geology (from History of paleontology)
Image 9Stephan Endlicher (from List of paleontologists)

Image 9Stephan Endlicher (from List of paleontologists)
Image 10Elmer Riggs and H.W. Menke in Field Columbian Museum's paleontology lab, 1899 (from History of paleontology)

Image 10Elmer Riggs and H.W. Menke in Field Columbian Museum's paleontology lab, 1899 (from History of paleontology)
Image 11Philippe-Charles Schmerling (from List of paleontologists)

Image 11Philippe-Charles Schmerling (from List of paleontologists)
Image 12Geologic time scale from an 1861 book by Richard Owen shows the appearance of major animal types. (from History of paleontology)

Image 12Geologic time scale from an 1861 book by Richard Owen shows the appearance of major animal types. (from History of paleontology)
Image 13Photograph of the second Archaeopteryx skeleton to be found, taken in 1881 at the Natural History Museum, Berlin (from History of paleontology)

Image 13Photograph of the second Archaeopteryx skeleton to be found, taken in 1881 at the Natural History Museum, Berlin (from History of paleontology)
Image 14A Spriggina fossil from the Ediacaran (from History of paleontology)

Image 14A Spriggina fossil from the Ediacaran (from History of paleontology)
Image 15First mention of the word palæontologie, as coined in January 1822 by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in his Journal de physique (from History of paleontology)

Image 15First mention of the word palæontologie, as coined in January 1822 by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in his Journal de physique (from History of paleontology)
Image 16Illustration from William Smith's Strata by Organized Fossils (1817) (from History of paleontology)

Image 16Illustration from William Smith's Strata by Organized Fossils (1817) (from History of paleontology)
Image 17Illustration of fossil Iguanodon teeth with a modern iguana jaw for comparison from Mantell's 1825 paper describing Iguanodon (from History of paleontology)

Image 17Illustration of fossil Iguanodon teeth with a modern iguana jaw for comparison from Mantell's 1825 paper describing Iguanodon (from History of paleontology)

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Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

"Archaeoraptor" is the generic name informally assigned in 1999 to a fossil from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even prior to this publication there had been severe doubts about the fossil's authenticity. It led to a scandal when evidence demonstrated it to be a forgery through further scientific study. The forgery was constructed from rearranged pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body actually belong to a specimen of the primitive fossil bird Yanornis. A 2002 study found that the tail belongs to a small winged dromaeosaur, Microraptor, named in 2000. The legs and feet belong to an as yet unknown animal.

The "Archaeoraptor" scandal has ongoing ramifications. The scandal brought attention to illegal fossil deals conducted in China. It also highlighted the need for close scientific scrutiny of purported "missing links" published in journals which are not peer-reviewed. The fossil scandal has been used by creationists in attempts to cast doubt on evolutionary theory. Although "Archaeoraptor" was a forgery, many true examples of feathered dinosaurs have been found and demonstrate the evolutionary connection between birds and other theropods. (see more...)

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