Portal:Paleontology

The Palaeontology Portal

Introduction

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. (Full article...)

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Selected article on the prehistoric world and its legacies

Artist's restoration of Othnielosaurus.

Othnielosaurus is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived about 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation of the western United States. It is named in honor of famed paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, and was formerly assigned to the genus Laosaurus. This genus was coined to hold fossils formerly included in Othnielia, which is based on remains that may be too sparse to hold a name; as such, it is part of decades of research to untangle the taxonomy left behind by Marsh and his rival Edward Drinker Cope from the Bone Wars. Othnielosaurus has usually been classified as a hypsilophodont, a type of generalized small bipedal herbivore or omnivore, although recent research has called this and the existence of a distinct group of hypsilophodonts into question. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that the extinct sweat bee genus Oligochlora contains six species all known from the Dominican amber deposits on Hispaniola?
... that Riojasuchus was an ornithosuchid that is known from four skeletons and lived about 217 to 215 million years ago?
... that the extinct ant Pristomyrmex rasnitsyni is the first member of its genus found in Europe?
... that the extinct species Agulla mineralensis is the first North American snakefly to be described from Neogene fossils?
... that the amber entombing the extinct ant Haidoterminus cippus (pictured) was preserved in a lagoon or saltwater marsh?

...that the largest sea turtles ever to have swum the oceans belonged to the family Protostegidae?
... that the extinct ant-like stone beetle Kachinus, found in Cretaceous amber, is similar in appearance to the modern genus Paraneseuthia?
... that at just over 18 millimetres (0.71 in), Fibla carpenteri is the largest species of snakefly known from amber?
... that Aenigmastacus, a fossil crayfish from Canada, belongs to a family only otherwise known from the Southern Hemisphere?
... that the extinct pseudoscorpion Pseudogarypus synchrotron is named for the synchrotron imaging equipment?

More did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

Image 1Illustration 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 William Smith's Strata by Organized Fossils (1817) (from History of paleontology)
Image 3Elmer Riggs and H.W. Menke in Field Columbian Museum's paleontology lab, 1899 (from History of paleontology)
Image 4Johann Jakob Scheuchzer tried to explain fossils using Biblical floods in his Herbarium of the Deluge (1709). (from History of paleontology)
Image 5Illustration of fossil Iguanodon teeth with a modern iguana jaw for comparison from Mantell's 1825 paper describing Iguanodon (from History of paleontology)
Image 6A complete Anomalocaris fossil from the Burgess shale (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 8Diagram 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 9Illustration of the fossil jaw of the Stonesfield mammal from Gideon Mantell's 1848 Wonders of Geology (from History of paleontology)
Image 10Stephan Endlicher (from List of paleontologists)
Image 11A drawing comparing jaws was added in 1799 when Cuvier's 1796 presentation on living and fossil elephants was published. (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 13Philippe-Charles Schmerling (from List of paleontologists)
Image 14Duria 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 15Fossil of the Taung child discovered in South Africa in 1924 (from History of paleontology)
Image 16A Spriggina fossil from the Ediacaran (from History of paleontology)
Image 17First 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)

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Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy, publishing his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen. Cope later married and moved from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years.

Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone Wars. Cope's financial fortunes soured after failed mining ventures in the 1880s. He experienced a resurgence in his career toward the end of his life before dying in 1897.

Cope's scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, but his contributions helped to define the field of American paleontology. He was a prodigious writer, with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime, although his rivals would debate the accuracy of his rapidly published works. He discovered, described, and named more than 1,000 vertebrate species including hundreds of fishes and dozens of dinosaurs. His proposals on the origin of mammalian molars and for the gradual enlargement of mammalian species over geologic time ("Cope's Law") are notable among his theoretical contributions. (see more...)

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On this day...

October 21:

1907 - Archibald Lamont was born in Rothesay, Scotland.
1960 - Paul Fallot died in Paris, France.

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Selected image

Two skeletons of women between 25 and 35 years of age preserved in the Tomb of Téviec. The tomb is dated to the Mesolithic between 6,740 and 5,680 years ago. They died a violent death, with several head injuries and impacts of arrows. The two bodies were buried with great care in a pit half in the basement rock (underlying or country rock) and half in the kitchen debris that covered them. The tomb is protected by antlers. The grave goods include flint and bone (mainly wild boar) offerings and funeral jewelry which is made of marine shells drilled and assembled into necklaces, bracelets and ankle ring. Some of the bone objects have engraved lines. The tomb was recovered in 1938 and restored in 2010.
Photo credit: Didier Descouens