"Paleontology 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)."
The scientific study of life, which is important in understanding the anatomy, physiology, and behavior of extinct organisms.
Evolution: The study of how living organisms have changed over time.
Taxonomy: The classification of living organisms according to their physical, genetic, and evolutionary characteristics.
Genetics: The study of inherited traits and how they are passed down from generation to generation.
Geology: The study of the Earth’s structure, history, and processes.
Ecology: The study of how living organisms interact with one another and their environment.
Physiology: The study of the functions and activities of living organisms.
Anatomy: The study of the structure and organization of living organisms.
Paleontology: The study of fossilized organisms and their environments.
Biogeography: The study of the distribution of living organisms over geographic space and time.
Systematics: The study of classification systems and how they are used to organize living organisms.
Evolutionary biology: The study of the mechanisms and processes that drive evolution.
Biostatistics: The application of statistical methods to the study of biological systems.
Microbiology: The study of microorganisms and their effects on living organisms.
Immunology: The study of the immune system and how it protects the body from disease.
Biochemistry: The study of the chemical processes that occur within living organisms.
Molecular biology: The study of the molecular basis of biological activity.
Zoology: The study of animals and their behavior, physiology, and diversity.
Botany: The study of plants and their morphology, physiology, and diversity.
Ethology: The study of animal behavior.
Biophysics: The study of the physical processes and properties of living organisms.
Evolutionary biology: Study of the origin and descent of species, and their change over time.
Ecology: Study of interactions between organisms and their environment.
Molecular biology: Study of the structure and function of biological macromolecules, including DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Microbiology: Study of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
Physiology: Study of the functions and activities of living organisms and their parts.
Genetics: Study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.
Biochemistry: Study of chemical processes that occur within living organisms.
Biotechnology: Application of biological principles to develop products and services that improve human life.
Cell biology: Study of cells, their structure, function, and interactions with each other.
Developmental biology: Study of the growth and development of organisms from fertilization to adulthood.
Immunology: Study of the immune system, the body's defense against infectious diseases.
Marine biology: Study of life in the ocean, including its ecology, biodiversity, and conservation.
Botany: Study of plants, including their structure, growth, reproduction, and evolution.
Zoology: Study of animals, including their structure, behavior, and evolution.
Paleontology: Study of fossils and ancient life, including the evolution and extinction of species.
"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."
"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."
"As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialized 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."
"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."
"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."