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Information about Paleontology

Palaeontology redirects here. For the scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal).


Zoology


Branches of Zoology
Anthrozoology Apiology Arachnology Cetology Entomology Ethology Herpetology Ichthyology Malacology Mammalogy Myrmecology Neuroethology Ornithology Paleozoology Primatology
History
pre-Darwin post-Darwin
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Paleontology, palaeontology or palæontology (from Greek: paleo, "ancient"; ontos, "being"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils.[1] This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised faeces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Studies of prehistoric hominins, their culture and their behaviour are the purview of two other disciplines, archaeology and paleoanthropology.

Background

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 adapted the planetary environment in turn and how these mutual responses have affected today's patterns of biodiversity. Hence, paleontology overlaps with geology (the study of rocks and rock formations) as well as with botany, biology, zoology and ecology – fields concerned with life forms and how they interact.

The major subdivisions of paleontology include paleozoology (animals), paleobotany (plants) and micropaleontology (microfossils). Paleozoologists may specialise in invertebrate paleontology, which deals with animals without backbones or in 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.

There are many developing specialties such as paleobiology, paleoecology, ichnology (the study of tracks and burrows) and taphonomy (the study of what happens to organisms after they expire). Major areas of study include the correlation of rock strata with their geologic ages and the study of evolution of lifeforms.

Paleontology utilises 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'.

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 industry 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.

Fossils were known by primitive humans and were sometimes identified correctly as the remains of ancient lifeforms. The organised study of paleontology dates from the late 18th century. For a more complete historical overview see the article History of paleontology.

Notable paleontologists

Enlarge picture
A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae.
History includes a number of prominent paleontologists. Charles Darwin collected fossils of South American mammals during his trip on the Beagle and examined petrified forests in Patagonia. Mary Anning was a notable early paleontologist. She found several landmark fossils, in her home town of Lyme Regis. Although self-taught, she collected and described them in a very systematic way. William Buckland, Richard Owen, Gideon Mantell, Georges Cuvier and Thomas Huxley were important early pioneers, in the field of paleontology. Thomas Jefferson took a keen interest in mammoth bones. Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh waged a famously fierce competition known as the Bone Wars in the late 19th century that involved some questionable practices, but which significantly advanced the understanding of the natural history of North America and vertebrate paleontology. Professor Earl Douglass of the Carnegie University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opened the fossil quarry protected today by Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. Douglass' fossils are in several Natural History Museums. Meanwhile, Baron Franz Nopcsa, a pioneer paleobiologist, argued that dinosaurs might have been both warm-blooded and ancestral to birds.

Besides looking at mammal teeth and unearthing penguin skeletons, George Gaylord Simpson played a crucial role in bringing together ideas from biology, paleontology and genetics, to help create the 'Modern Synthesis' of evolutionary biology. His book "Tempo and Mode" is a classic in the field. Prominent names in invertebrate paleontology include Steven M. Stanley, Stephen Jay Gould, David Raup, Rousseau H. Flower and Jack Sepkoski, who have done much to expand our understanding of long-term patterns in the evolution of life on earth. Large names in the field of paleoanthropology include Louis, Mary and Richard Leakey, Raymond Dart, Robert Broom, C.K. 'Bob' Brain, Kenneth Oakley, Robert Ardrey and Donald Johanson. In recent times, Mongolian paleontologist Rinchen Barsbold has done much to expand our understanding of dinosaur and bird evolution. Paul Sereno of the Field Museum in Chicago has made several important dinosaur finds in areas such as the Sahara, where fossil hunting has been uncommon.

See also

References

1. ^ Newman, Garfield, et al (2001). Echoes from the past: world history to the 16th century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. ISBN 0-07-088739-X. 

External links

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General subfields within biology
Anatomy - Astrobiology - Biochemistry - Bioinformatics - Botany - Cell biology - Ecology - Developmental biology - Evolutionary biology - Genetics - Genomics - Marine biology - Human biology - Microbiology - Molecular biology - Origin of life - Paleontology - Parasitology - Pathology - Physiology - Taxonomy - Zoology
scientific journal is a publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Most journals are highly specialized, although some of the oldest journals such as Nature
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Impact factor
on JCR (year) 1.091 (2006)
Frequency Quarterly
Open access Back issues
Indexing
ISSN 0031-0239
Links
* Journal homepage

Palaeontology is one of the two journals of the Palaeontological Association.
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Zoology (from Greek: ζῴον, zoion, "animal"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals.
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Anthrozoology is the study of human-animal interaction ("animal" referring to all non-human animals), also described as the science focusing on all aspects of the human-animal bond.
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Apiology (from Greek: api, "bee"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of bees, a branch of entomology. Bees are often chosen as a study group to answer questions on the evolution of social systems.
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Arachnology (from Greek: αραχνη, arachne, "spider"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of spiders and related organisms such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, collectively
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Cetology (from Greek: κητος, cetus, "whale"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the branch of marine mammal science that studies the approximately eighty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoise in the
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Entomology, from the Greek: entomo-/εντομο- "that which is cut in pieces or engraved/segmented", hence "insect"; and logos/λόγος, "knowledge",[1] is the scientific study of insects.
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Ethology (from Greek: ήθος, ethos, "custom"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a branch of zoology.
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Herpetology (from greek: 'ερπετόν, "creeping animal" and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of reptiles and amphibians.
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Ichthyology (from Greek: ἰχθυ, ikhthu, "fish"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish.
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Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology which deals with the study of mollusks, the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species.[1] One division of malacology, conchology, is devoted to the study of shelled mollusks.
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In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous systems.
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Myrmecology is the scientific study of ants, a branch of entomology. The ant, its habits, behaviours and society have long fascinated man. Ancient Judaic and Greek moral tales both show that these societies had observed the behaviour of ants and related it to that of people.
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Not to be confused with neurotheology.


Neuroethology is a branch of neuroscience that emphasizes the study of neural mechanisms of natural behavior.
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Ornithology (from Greek: ορνισ, ornis, "bird"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of birds.
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Paleozoology, also spelled as palaeozoology (Greek: paleon = old and zoon = animal), is the branch of paleontology or paleobiology dealing with the recovery and identification of multicellular animal remains from geological (or even archeological)
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Primatology is the study of primates. It is a diverse discipline and primatologists can be found in departments of biology, anthropology, psychology and many others.
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history of zoology before the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859.

Pre-scientific zoology

Humans have been fascinated by the other members of the animal kingdom throughout history.
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This article considers the history of zoology in the years up to 1912, since the theory of evolution by natural selection proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859.
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Prehistory (Latin, præ = before Greek, ιστορία = history) is a term often used to describe the period before written history. Paul Tournal originally coined the term Pré-historique
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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ichnite (Greek "ιχνιον" (ichnion) - a track, trace or footstep) is a fossilised footprint. This is a type of trace fossil. Over the years, many ichnites have been found, around the world, giving important clues about the behaviour
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A burrow is a hole or tunnel dug into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of shelter against predation and exposure to the elements, so the burrowing way of life is quite
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Feces, faeces, or fæces (see spelling differences) is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus (or cloaca) during defecation. The word faeces is the plural of the Latin word fæx meaning "dregs".
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Coprolite is the name given to the mineral that results when human or animal dung is fossilized. The name is derived from the Greek words κοπρος/kopros meaning 'dung' and λιθος/lithos meaning 'stone'.
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Palynomorph is the geological term used to describe a particle of a size between five and 500 micrometres, found in rock deposits (sedimentary rocks) and composed of organic material such as chitin, pseudochitin and sporopollenin.
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Hominini
Gray, 1825

Genera

Subtribe Panina
  • Pan (chimpanzees)
Subtribe Hominina
  • Homo (humans)
  • †Paranthropus
  • †Australopithecus
  • †Sahelanthropus
  • †Orrorin

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