Portal:Paleontology

The Palaeontology Portal

Introduction

Paleontology or palaeontology is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geologic time, and assess the interactions between prehistoric organisms and their natural environment. While paleontological observations are known from at least the 6th century BC, the foundation of paleontology as a science dates back to the work of Georges Cuvier in 1796. Cuvier demonstrated evidence for the concept of extinction and how the life of the past was not necessarily the same as that of the present. The field developed rapidly over the course of the following decades, and the French word paléontologie was introduced for the study in 1822, which was derived from the Ancient Greek word for 'ancient' and words describing relatedness and a field of study. Further advances in the field accompanied the work of Charles Darwin who popularized the concept of evolution. Together, evolution and extinction can be understood as complementary processes that shaped the history of life.

Paleontology overlaps the most with the fields of geology and biology. It draws on technology and analysis of a wide range of sciences to apply them to the study of life and environments of the past, particularly for the subdisciplines of paleobiology and paleoecology that are analogous to biology and ecology. Paleontology also contributes to other sciences, being utilized for biostratigraphy to reconstruct the geologic time scale of Earth, or in studies on extinction to establish both external and internal factors that can lead to the disappearance of a species. Much of the history of life is now better understood because of advances in paleontology and the increase in interdisciplinary studies. Several improvements in understanding have occurred from the introduction of theoretical analysis to paleontology in the 1950s and 1960s which led to the rise of more focused fields of paleontology that assess the changing geography and climate of Earth, the phylogenetic relationships between different species, and the analysis of how fossilization occurs and what biases can impact the quality of the fossil record. (Full article...)

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Selected article on the prehistoric world and its legacies

Scale image of both Amphicoelias species.

Amphicoelias (/ˌæmfɪˈsiːliəs/, meaning "biconcave", from the Greek αμφι, amphi: "on both sides", and κοιλος, koilos: "hollow, concave") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that includes what may be the largest dinosaur ever discovered, A. fragillimus. Based on surviving descriptions of a single fossil bone, A. fragillimus may have been the longest known vertebrate at 40 to 60 metres (130 to 200 ft) in length, and may have had a mass of up to 122 tonnes (135 short tons). However, because the only fossil remains were lost at some point after being studied and described in the 1870s, evidence survives only in drawings and field notes. The fossil was found in the Morrison Formation. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that the fossil genus Astreptolabis (pictured) is one of four described Burmese amber earwigs?
... that Xinjiangtitan is a 32-metre sauropod dinosaur from Xinjiang in China?
... that a fossil of the extinct sea scorpion Eurypterus (restoration pictured) was once thought to be a catfish?
... that the extinct brown lacewing Cretomerobius is known from both the Cretaceous and Eocene?
... that the 45,000-year-old remains of Ust'-Ishim man are the oldest modern human genome to be fully sequenced to date?

... that the Devonian stem tetrapod Tinirau clackae, transitional between fish and land vertebrates, was named after the half-human half-fish character Tinirau in Polynesian legend?
... that the extinct wasp Deinodryinus areolatus is one of two Deinodryinus species known from Baltic amber?
... that the pterosaur genus Carniadactylus was originally classified under the species name Eudimorphodon rosenfeldi?
... that Leptofoenus pittfieldae is the only species of Leptofoenus documented from the West Indies and the only member of Leptofoenus in the fossil record?
... that the ammonite Hildoceras bifrons (pictured) has been used as an index fossil to help identify the age of rocks?

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General images - load new batch

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

Image 1Stephan Endlicher (from List of paleontologists)
Image 2A Spriggina fossil from the Ediacaran (from History of paleontology)
Image 3Elmer Riggs and H.W. Menke in Field Columbian Museum's paleontology lab, 1899 (from History of paleontology)
Image 4A drawing comparing jaws was added in 1799 when Cuvier's 1796 presentation on living and fossil elephants was published. (from History of paleontology)
Image 5A complete Anomalocaris fossil from the Burgess Shale (from History of paleontology)
Image 6Johann Jakob Scheuchzer tried to explain fossils using Biblical floods in his Herbarium of the Deluge (1709). (from History of paleontology)
Image 7Photograph of the second Archaeopteryx skeleton to be found, taken in 1881 at the Natural History Museum, Berlin (from History of paleontology)
Image 8Philippe-Charles Schmerling (from List of paleontologists)
Image 9Illustration of the fossil jaw of the Stonesfield mammal from Gideon Mantell's 1848 Wonders of Geology (from History of paleontology)
Image 10First 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 11Fossil of the Taung child discovered in South Africa in 1924 (from History of paleontology)
Image 12Diagram 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 13Geologic time scale from an 1861 book by Richard Owen shows the appearance of major animal types. (from History of paleontology)
Image 14Illustration from William Smith's Strata by Organized Fossils (1817) (from History of paleontology)
Image 15Duria 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 16Illustration from Steno's 1667 paper shows a shark head and its teeth along with a fossil tooth for comparison. (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

The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, also known as Dinosaur Court, are a series of sculptures of extinct animals (including dinosaurs) and mammals in Crystal Palace Park, now in the London borough of Bromley. Commissioned in 1852 to accompany the Crystal Palace after its move from the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park and unveiled in 1854, they were the first dinosaur sculptures in the world, pre-dating the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by six years. While to varying degrees inaccurate by modern standards, the models were designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins under the scientific direction of Sir Richard Owen, representing the latest scientific knowledge at the time. The models were classed as Grade II listed buildings from 1973, extensively restored in 2002, and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007.

The models represent fifteen genera of extinct animals, not all dinosaurs. They are from a wide range of geological ages, and include true dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs mainly from the Mesozoic era, and some mammals from the more recent Cenozoic era. (see more...)

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On this day...

August 23:

1769 - Georges Cuvier was born in Montbéliard, France.
1833 - Giovanni Capellini was born in La Spezia, Italy.
1947 - Clive Forster-Cooper died.
1990 - Mirko Malez died in Zagreb, Croatia at age 65.
2003 - Pierre Hupé died in Paris, France.

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Selected image

A molar of the proboscidean Platybelodon grangeri. This fossil dates between 5.3 and 14 million years ago to the Miocene epoch of the Neogene period. It was discovered in the Linxia Basin of Gansu Province, China and measures 20 × 9 × 6 cm in size.
Photo credit: Didier Descouens