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

Parasaurolophus (meaning 'near crested lizard') was a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America, about 76-73 million years ago. It was a herbivore that walked both as a biped and a quadruped. Three species are recognized: P. walkeri (the type species), P. tubicen, and the short-crested P. cyrtocristatus. Remains are known from Alberta (Canada), and New Mexico and Utah (United States). It was first described in 1922 by William Parks from a skull and partial skeleton in Alberta.

Parasaurolophus is a hadrosaur, part of a diverse family of Cretaceous dinosaurs known for their range of bizarre head adornments. This genus is known for its large, elaborate cranial crest, which at its largest forms a long curved tube projecting upwards and back from the skull. A similar crest is found on Charonosaurus from China, which may have been its closest relative. The crest has been much discussed by scientists; the consensus is that major functions included visual recognition of both species and gender, acoustic resonance, and thermoregulation. It is one of the rarer duckbills, known from only a handful of good specimens. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that biological anthropologist David Tab Rasmussen enjoyed working in the Neotropics because it allowed him to study both primates and birds, his two favorite subjects?
...that naturalist Remington Kellogg used his time serving in France during World War I to collect specimens for universities in the United States?
... that the extinct buthid scorpion Uintascorpio was first placed in the family Vaejovidae?
...that Cetartiodactyla is a hypothesis based on DNA that suggests whales and hippos are related?
... that the fossil maple species Acer kenaicum was suggested to be an ancestor of silver maples?

...that Archiinocellia is noted to be the only snakefly fossil genus from British Columbia and one of only two from Canada?
... that the extinct wasps Dryinus grimaldii and Dryinus rasnitsyni are distinguishable by the modified claws on their front legs?
... that the cat gap is a period in the fossil record (cat illustration pictured) of approximately 25 to 17 million years ago in which there were few cats or cat-like species?
... that the extinct horsetail Equisetum thermale grew in Jurassic hot springs?
... that Lepidotus was a genus of prehistoric fish that existed from the Late Triassic (Rhaetic) to the middle Cretaceous (Cenomanian)?

General images - load new batch

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

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

Jurassic Park III is a 2001 American science fiction adventure monster film. It is the third installment in the Jurassic Park franchise and a sequel to the 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It is the series' first film that was not directed by Steven Spielberg nor based on a book by Michael Crichton (though numerous scenes in the film were ultimately taken from Crichton's novels Jurassic Park and The Lost World). The film takes place on Isla Sorna, off Central America's Pacific coast, the island featured in the second film, where a divorced couple has tricked Dr. Alan Grant into going in order to help them find their son.

After the success of Spielberg's Jurassic Park, Joe Johnston expressed interest in directing a sequel, a film adaptation of The Lost World. Spielberg instead gave Johnston permission to direct the third film in the series, if there were to be one. Production of Jurassic Park III began on August 30, 2000. Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews, with many praising the visual effects and action scenes but finding the plot clichéd and unoriginal. Despite being less well-received than the previous films, Jurassic Park III was a box office success, grossing $368 million worldwide. (see more...)

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On this day...

August 21:

1833 - During the second voyage of the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin revisited the fossil sites near Punta Alta, Argentina that he studied the previous year.

New Insights into Non-Avian Dinosaur Reproduction and Their Evolutionary and Ecological Implications: Linking Fossil Evidence to Allometries of Extant Close Relatives

Jan Werner, Eva Maria Griebeler

published 21 Aug 2013

2015 - A man named Stjepan Sucec discovered a megalodon tooth while hunting for shells in the Kupa River near Pokupsko, Croatia. Sucec's megalodon was once an inhabitant of the region's Miocene-Pliocene Pannonian Sea.

More anniversaries...

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