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 reconstruction of Waptia fieldensis.

Hypacrosaurus (meaning "near the highest lizard" [Greek υπο-, hypo- = less + ακρος, akros, high], because it was almost but not quite as large as Tyrannosaurus) was a genus of duckbill dinosaur similar in appearance to Corythosaurus. Like Corythosaurus, it had a tall, hollow rounded crest, although not as large and straight. It is known from the remains of two species that spanned 75 to 67 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and Montana, United States, and is the latest hollow-crested duckbill known from good remains in North America. It was an obscure genus until the description of nests, eggs, and hatchlings belonging to H. stebingeri in the 1990s. (see more...)

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Did you know?

...that the Burgsvik beds, a geological formation exposed on Gotland, Sweden, contain the only fossil euglenid ever discovered?
...that the extinct species of Edaphodon, a type of rabbitfish related to the shark, grazed along the bottom of the ocean like land-dwelling herbivores do now?
... that the Paleocene Alaskan maple Acer alaskense was described from a fossil leaf that may be atypical for the species?
... that Termitaradus protera was the first termite bug found in amber?
... that Hyptia deansi is the only fossil ensign wasp described from Mexican amber?

... that the largest known ovules produced by any non-flowering seed-plant came from the Medullosales (fossilized leaves pictured), an order of extinct seed ferns?
... that the Late Cretaceous crocodile relative Simosuchus (restoration pictured) ate plants and had a pug-nosed snout?
...that though no fossil grasses have been discovered, the earliest-known grassland ecosystem, the 30+ million-year-old Tinguiririca fauna of Chile, can be detected through the grazers' teeth?
... that the extinct hangingfly genera Formosibittacus, Jurahylobittacus, and Mongolbittacus are only known from the Middle Jurassic of China?
... that the extinct legume Hymenaea allendis is the second Hymenaea species described from Mexican amber?

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

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Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

Petrified Forest National Park is a United States national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 146 square miles (380 km²), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962.

The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the park's rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the park's fossils since the early 20th century. (see more...)

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On this day...

October 17:

1848 - Truman H. Aldrich was born in Palmyra, New York
2006 - Vadim Gratshev died.

Dinosaur Speed Demon: The Caudal Musculature of Carnotaurus sastrei and Implications for the Evolution of South American Abelisaurids

W. Scott Persons, Philip J. Currie

published 17 Oct 2011

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Selected image

Various views of a Pliocene shell of the lightning whelk Busycon contrarium from La Belle, Florida, USA. The specimen is 24 cm long.
Photo credit: H. Zell