"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)."
It is the study of fossils and ancient life forms to understand the history of life on Earth.
Geology: Understanding the basic principles of geology, including stratigraphy and sedimentology, is essential in studying paleontology. This will help you understand the context and age of fossils.
Evolution: Learning about the mechanisms that drive evolution will help you understand how organisms developed over time and how they interacted with their environment.
Biology: Understanding the anatomy, physiology, and behavior of modern organisms is crucial in order to infer the biology of extinct organisms based on their fossil remains.
Taxonomy: Knowing how to classify organisms based on their physical and genetic characteristics is important in identifying and describing new species.
Ecology: Understanding the relationships between organisms and their environment, including the role of climate and biotic interactions, helps in interpreting the fossil record.
Genetics: Knowledge of basic genetics is useful in understanding evolutionary relationships and in interpreting the phylogenetic relationships of organisms.
Comparative Anatomy: Understanding the similarities and differences between modern and extinct organisms will allow for better interpretations of the fossil record.
Paleobiology: The study of the biology of extinct organisms, including their behavior, ecology, and adaptation, is essential in understanding the evolution of life on Earth.
Paleoenvironments: Understanding the ancient environment in which fossils were formed is important in interpreting the biology and ecology of the organisms that lived there.
Taphonomy: The study of the processes that affect the preservation of fossils is important in understanding the biases and limitations of the fossil record.
Stratigraphy: Knowing how to interpret the layering of sedimentary rocks is important in determining the age of fossils and in reconstructing the history of the Earth.
Paleoecology: The study of ancient ecosystems and how they evolved over time is essential in understanding the interactions between organisms and their environment in the past.
Biostratigraphy: Understanding the distribution of fossils in sedimentary rocks is important in determining the relative ages of rocks and in stratigraphic correlation.
Paleoclimatology: The study of ancient climates and how they changed over time is important in understanding the evolution of life on Earth and the history of the planet.
Biogeography: Understanding the distribution of organisms across space and time is important in reconstructing the evolutionary history of life on Earth.
Vertebrate Paleontology: This is the study of fossilized remains of vertebrates, including dinosaurs, birds, reptiles, mammals, and fish.
Invertebrate Paleontology: This is the study of fossilized remains of invertebrates, including mollusks, corals, and arthropods.
Micropaleontology: This is the study of the remains of microscopic organisms such as diatoms, foraminifera, and radiolarians.
Paleobotany: This is the study of ancient plants based on fossilized remains. The study includes the evolution, classification, and ecology of ancient plant species.
Paleoecology: This is the study of ancient ecosystems and the interactions between species and their environment. The study includes reconstructing paleoenvironments, climate, and biotic relationships.
Taphonomy: This is the study of the processes that affect the preservation of organisms after their death, such as decay, burial, and fossilization.
"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."