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

The list of dinosaurs is a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the superorder Dinosauria, excluding class Aves (birds, both living and those known only from fossils) and purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera that are now considered invalid, doubtful (nomen dubium), or were not formally published (nomen nudum), as well as junior synonyms of more established names, and genera that are no longer considered dinosaurs. Many listed names have been reclassified as everything from birds to crocodilians to petrified wood. The list contains more than 1,000 names considered either valid dinosaur genera or nomina dubia. (see more...)

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Did you know?

A life restoration of Shonisaurus popularis

... that highlights from the history of ichthyosaur research (example pictured) include fossils of pregnant females, whale-sized ichthyosaurs from Nevada, and ichthyosaurs with swordfish-like jaws?
... that one species of the extinct wasp Palaeovespa fed caterpillars to its larvae?
... that humans living next to a lake at the Bouri Formation in Ethiopia 160,000 and 154,000 years ago butchered not only adult Hippopotamuses but also those that were newborn?
... that the fossil butterfly Prodryas persephone (engraving pictured) is so well preserved that individual wing scales can be seen?
... that wildfires have occurred on the Earth for over 420 million years?

A life restoration of Nankangia

... that it is unknown whether the dinosaur Nankangia was carnivorous or herbivorous?
... that Wushan Man, a species of Homo, was identified from a fossil jaw found south of the Yangtze River but is now thought to come from an extinct ape that lived in China two million years ago?
... that the extinct, Triassic, bivalve family Cassianellidae may have evolved from the family Bakevelliidae, which survived longer into the Eocene?
... that Pseudarmadillo tuberculatus was one of two Pseudarmadillo species described in 1984 from fossils in Dominican amber?
... that the recently named rhamphorhynchid Bellubrunnus (restoration pictured) from the Jurassic of Germany is the only known pterosaur to have wing tips that curved forward?

More did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

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

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Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

Two Iguanodon sculptures at the crystal palace. — Two *Iguanodon* sculptures at the crystal palace.

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...)

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On this day...

June 1:

1860 - Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitskii was born.
1897 - Yang Zhongjian was born in Huaxian, Shaanxi, China.
2015 - Phillip L. Manning, Victoria M. Egerton, and Mike Romano reported the oldest known sauropod fossil discovered in Britain from the Aalenian Saltwick Formation of Whitby, England.

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Selected image

An extremely well preserved specimen of the Late Jurassic ichthyodectid fish genus Thrissops, similar to the species T. formosus. The specimen was discovered near Ettling, Bavaria, Germany and still preserves remains of the animal's soft tissue like musculature and the gastrointestinal tract. Even the color pattern it exhibited in life is preserved as spots by the melanin in its scales.
Photo credit: H. Zell