Paleontology
Paleontology is the scientific study of the history of life on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks, burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces ("coprolites"), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 2019.
History[edit | edit source]
The history of paleontology traces the history of the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the fossil record left behind by living organisms. Since it is concerned with understanding living organisms of the past, paleontology can be considered to be a field of biology, but its historical development has been closely tied to geology and the effort to understand the history of Earth itself.
Branches[edit | edit source]
Paleontology breaks down into three main disciplines: Paleobotany, the study of fossil plants; Invertebrate Paleontology, the study of invertebrate animal fossils, such as mollusks, echinoderms, and others; and Vertebrate Paleontology, the study of vertebrate fossils, from primitive fishes to mammals.
Methods[edit | edit source]
The methods used in paleontology overlap with those of many other fields in the natural sciences, including biology, geology, and ecology. For example, the principles of stratigraphy can be used to date fossils, the principles of ecology can be used to understand ancient environments, and the principles of genetics can be used to study the relationships between extinct species.
Importance[edit | edit source]
Paleontology has played a key role in reconstructing Earth's history and has contributed to important theories in both geology and biology. It also has uses in a number of applied sciences, such as geology, paleobiology, paleoecology, and many others.
See also[edit | edit source]
- List of years in paleontology
- Timeline of paleontology
- History of paleontology
- Paleobotany
- Invertebrate paleontology
- Vertebrate paleontology
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