Portal:Paleontology

The Palaeontology Portal

Introduction

Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, 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 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 which 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 of interdisciplinary studies. Several improvements in understanding have occurred from the introduction of theoretical analysis to paleontology in the 1950s and 1960s that 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

Holotype specimen of Cetiosauriscus.

Cetiosauriscus (/siːθiːuːsɒrɪskʌs/ meaning "whale-lizard-like" i.e. "Cetiosaurus-like") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur. It was perhaps a diplodocid, a relative of Diplodocus, and lived in the Callovian (Middle to Late Jurassic Period) of England (about 165 to 161 million years ago [mya]). Cetiosauriscus was a quadrupedal, herbivorous, saurischian. It was named by Friedrich von Huene in 1927, the species name being C. leedsi. Later it was shown that C. leedsi was not a Cetiosauriscus species, so, in 1993, Alan J. Charig sent a petition to the ICZN to designate C. stewarti as the type species. The remains include a series of vertebra, a hind leg, a possible whiplash tail, a partial sacrum, and a front leg. Cetiosauriscus has, over time, been classified in Cardiodontinae within Cetiosauridae, Diplodocidae, and Mamenchisauridae. It lived alongside Eustreptospondylus, Sarcolestes, Callovosaurus, Lexovisaurus, and possibly Megalosaurus, and Cetiosaurus. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that the extinct ant Asymphylomyrmex (pictured) was suggested to be a specialized group with no descendants?
... that fossils of the extinct legume Hymenaea mexicana show several types of insect feeding?
... that fossils of the extinct legume Hymenaea mexicana show several types of insect feeding?
... that the extinct Syndesus ambericus is the only stag beetle known from the Caribbean?
...that geologist T.H. Clark retired from McGill University in Quebec, Canada, at the age of 100, after teaching for 69 years?

A life restoration of Styxosaurus

...that the first Styxosaurus fossil to be discovered had about 250 stones in its stomach that it probably swallowed for ballast?
... that unlike the living golden-club Orontium aquaticum (pictured), the extinct species Orontium mackii may not have needed wetlands to grow?
... that an unnamed member of the extinct order Hupehsuchia exhibited an unusual form of polydactyly that is similar to that of some early tetrapods of the Devonian period?
... that the recently named trematopid temnospondyl Fedexia was named after the shipping service FedEx, which owned the land where the holotype specimen was found?
... that the name Pachylemur, now used for a type of extinct giant lemur, was first used as group name of primitive primates once considered intermediate between pachyderms and lemurs?

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General images - load new batch

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

Image 1Duria 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 2First 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 3Fossil of the Taung child discovered in South Africa in 1924 (from History of paleontology)
Image 4Photograph of the second Archaeopteryx skeleton to be found, taken in 1881 at the Natural History Museum, Berlin (from History of paleontology)
Image 5A drawing comparing jaws was added in 1799 when Cuvier's 1796 presentation on living and fossil elephants was published. (from History of paleontology)
Image 6Illustration from William Smith's Strata by Organized Fossils (1817) (from History of paleontology)
Image 7Stephan Endlicher (from List of paleontologists)
Image 8Elmer Riggs and H.W. Menke in Field Columbian Museum's paleontology lab, 1899 (from History of paleontology)
Image 9A complete Anomalocaris fossil from the Burgess shale (from History of paleontology)
Image 10Illustration of the fossil jaw of the Stonesfield mammal from Gideon Mantell's 1848 Wonders of Geology (from History of paleontology)
Image 11Illustration of fossil Iguanodon teeth with a modern iguana jaw for comparison from Mantell's 1825 paper describing Iguanodon (from History of paleontology)
Image 12Philippe-Charles Schmerling (from List of paleontologists)
Image 13Johann Jakob Scheuchzer tried to explain fossils using Biblical floods in his Herbarium of the Deluge (1709). (from History of paleontology)
Image 14Illustration from Steno's 1667 paper shows a shark head and its teeth along with a fossil tooth for comparison. (from History of paleontology)
Image 15Diagram 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 16A Spriggina fossil from the Ediacaran (from History of paleontology)
Image 17Geologic time scale from an 1861 book by Richard Owen shows the appearance of major animal types. (from History of paleontology)

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Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

Holotype material of Creosaurus atrox, more recently known as Allosaurus atrox. — Holotype material of *Creosaurus atrox*, more recently known as *Allosaurus atrox*.

There have been a number of potential species assigned to the carnosaurian dinosaur genus Allosaurus since its description in 1877 by Othniel Charles Marsh, but only a handful are still regarded as valid. Allosaurus was originally described from material from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western United States of America; the type species A. fragilis became one of the best-known species of dinosaur.

The genus Allosaurus was part of the Marsh/Cope "Bone Wars" of the late 19th century, and its taxonomy became increasingly confused due to the competition, with several genera and species named by Cope and Marsh now regarded as synonyms of Allosaurus or A. fragilis. Since the description of Allosaurus, scientists have proposed additional species from such far-flung locales as Portugal, Siberia, Switzerland, and Tanzania, and unnamed remains from Australia and China have also been assigned to the genus at one time or another. (see more...)

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On this day...

June 10:

2015 - Brandon P. Hedrick and others published a detailed description of the anatomy and taphonomy of the therizinosaurs Nothronychus mckinleyi and Nothronychus graffami.

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Selected image

A specimen of copal with insect inclusions. The piece of copal measures around four centimeters deep and the insects are trapped from 0.5 to 2 centimeters deep within it. The bubbles around some of the insects indicate that they were alive and breathing when they were trapped inside.
Photo credit: Brocken Inaglory
Upload credit: Mbz1