What is paleontology?
Paleontology is more than just dinosaurs! Paleontology is the study of the history of life on Earth, as reflected in the fossil record. Fossils are the remains or traces of organisms (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and other single-celled living things) that lived in the geological past and are preserved in the crust of the Earth. There are many subdivisions of the field of paleontology, including vertebrate paleontology (the study of fossils of animals with backbones), invertebrate paleontology (the study of fossils of animals without backbones), micropaleontology (the study of fossils of single-celled organisms), paleobotany (the study of plant fossils), taphonomy (the study of how fossils form and are preserved), biostratigraphy (the study of the vertical distribution of fossils in rocks), and paleoecology (the study of ancient ecosystems and how they developed). Paleontologists also frequently are involved in studies of evolutionary biology.
Paleontology is the study of the ancient life forms that have inhabited our earth, and of the fossils that remain behind. Paleontologists, those scientists who study paleontology, are working to understand the types of plants and animals that have lived here, from the beginning of life on earth until the present. They study ancient ferns and fish, dinosaurs and bear-dogs, climates and continents. They search for fossils in rocks from all over the earth, discovering clues that will help them recreate what life was like in the ancient past. What is a fossil? Fossils are evidence of past life that can still be found today. Most often, fossils are remains that have mineralized, i.e., turned to stone. They can be the bones or teeth of saber-tooth tiger, ancient trilobite shells, the imprint of a fern frond, the footprint of a dinosaur, or petrified wood. By studying these fossils paleontologists learn about long-extinct organisms that inhabited the earth in ancient times, and about how they
Paleontology is the study of ancient or prehistoric life on earth. Its main goal is to investigate the evolution of plant and animal species as well as the earth’s ancient ecosystems and climate as a whole. Although concerned with life, paleontology is actually a branch of geology; the study of physical nature. Paleontology uses fossils of organisms to speculate the conditions on earth during their lifetime. The changes in particular species of organisms also helps to answer questions concerning evolution. Since fossils are embedded in rock formations of various types, paleontology relies on geology, and so the two are closely related. By looking at fossils, their composition, placement and the surrounding preserved environment, paleontologists can glean the climate and its changes during a particular period. As paleontology is a sub science of geology there are similarly a number of specialty fields that fall under the branch of paleontology. These subgroups include micropaleontology,
Paleontology is the study of ancient or past life. Paleontologists study the fossilized remains of life, including vertebrate organisms such as fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and dinosaurs (vertebrate paleontology); invertebrate organisms such as ancient snails, clams, ammonites, foraminifera, and arthropods (invertebrate paleontology); and preserved plants such as leaf impressions and petrified wood (paleobotany). By studying fossilized organisms, ancient soils, geochemistry, and biochemistry, paleontologists are currently engaged in answering questions of global and regional climate change and investigating the anatomical and evolutionary changes of life over time.
