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...) Selected article on the prehistoric world and its legacies
Plateosaurus is a genus of plateosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period, around 214 to 204 million years ago, in what is now Central and Northern Europe. Plateosaurus is a basal (early) sauropodomorph dinosaur, a so-called "prosauropod". As of 2011, two species are recognized: the type species P. engelhardti and the slightly earlier P. gracilis.
Discovered in 1834 by Johann Friedrich Engelhardt and described three years later by Hermann von Meyer, Plateosaurus was the fifth named dinosaur genus that is still considered valid. It is now among the dinosaurs best known to science: over 100 skeletons have been found, some of them nearly complete. Plateosaurus was a bipedal herbivore with a small skull on a long, mobile neck, sharp but plump plant-crushing teeth, powerful hind limbs, short but muscular arms and grasping hands with large claws on three fingers, possibly used for defence and feeding. Unusually for a dinosaur, Plateosaurus showed strong developmental plasticity: instead of having a fairly uniform adult size, fully grown individuals were between 4.8 and 10 metres (16 and 33 ft) long and weighed between 600 and 4,000 kilograms (1,300 and 8,800 lb). Commonly, the animals lived for at least 12 to 20 years, but the maximum life span is not known. (see more...) Did you know?![]()
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General images -The following are images from various paleontology-related articles on Wikipedia.
Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics
The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, also known as Dinosaur Court, are a series of sculptures of extinct animals (including dinosaurs) and mammals in Crystal Palace Park, now in the London borough of Bromley. Commissioned in 1852 to accompany the Crystal Palace after its move from the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park and unveiled in 1854, they were the first dinosaur sculptures in the world, pre-dating the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by six years. While to varying degrees inaccurate by modern standards, the models were designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins under the scientific direction of Sir Richard Owen, representing the latest scientific knowledge at the time. The models were classed as Grade II listed buildings from 1973, extensively restored in 2002, and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007.
The models represent fifteen genera of extinct animals, not all dinosaurs. They are from a wide range of geological ages, and include true dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs mainly from the Mesozoic era, and some mammals from the more recent Cenozoic era. (see more...) On this day...July 16:
Distributions of Cranial Pathologies Provide Evidence for Head-Butting in Dome-Headed Dinosaurs (Pachycephalosauridae) Joseph E. Peterson, Collin Dischler, Nicholas R. Longrich published 16 Jul 2013 Selected image
CategoriesTopicsGeneral - Paleontology - Fossil - Evolution - Extinction Quality ContentFeatured paleontology articles
- Achelousaurus
- Acrocanthosaurus
- Albertosaurus
- Allosaurus
- Amargasaurus
- Ankylosaurus
- Apatosaurus
- Archaeopteryx
- Baryonyx
- Carnotaurus
- Catopsbaatar
- Ceratosaurus
- Chicxulub Crater
- Compsognathus
- Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event
- Daspletosaurus
- Deinocheirus
- Deinonychus
- Deinosuchus
- Dilophosaurus
- Dinosaur
- Diplodocus
- Dromaeosauroides
- Edmontosaurus
- Elasmosaurus
- Giganotosaurus
- Gorgosaurus
- Herrerasaurus
- Iguanodon
- Istiodactylus
- Lambeosaurus
- List of dinosaur genera
- Majungasaurus
- Massospondylus
- Megalodon
- Nemegtomaia
- Nigersaurus
- Opisthocoelicaudia
- Paranthodon
- Parasaurolophus
- Plateosaurus
- Psittacosaurus
- Seorsumuscardinus
- Spinosaurus
- Stegosaurus
- Stegoceras
- Styracosaurus
- Tarbosaurus
- Thescelosaurus
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus
- Velociraptor
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