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, and sometimes including, 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 all the way 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 restoration of Scelidosaurus.

Scelidosaurus is a genus of herbivorous armoured ornithischian dinosaur from England. Scelidosaurus lived during the Early Jurassic Period, during the Sinemurian to Pliensbachian stages around 191 million years ago. This genus and related genera at the time lived on the supercontinent Laurasia. Its fossils have been found near Charmouth in Dorset, England, and are known for their excellent preservation. Scelidosaurus has been called the earliest complete dinosaur. It is the most completely known dinosaur of the British Isles.

Scelidosaurus was about 4 metres (13 ft) long. It was a largely quadrupedal animal, feeding on low scrubby plants, the parts of which were bitten off by the small, elongated, head to be processed in the large gut. Scelidosaurus was lightly armoured, protected by long horizontal rows of keeled oval scutes, that stretched along the neck, back and tail.

One of the oldest known and most "primitive" of the thyreophorans, the exact placement of Scelidosaurus within this group has been the subject of debate for nearly 150 years. This was not helped by the limited additional knowledge about the early evolution of armoured dinosaurs. Today most evidence indicates that Scelidosaurus is a basal member of the Thyreophora, lower placed in the evolutionary tree of life than the Ankylosauridae or the Stegosauridae. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that the extinct ant Burmomyrma rossi was missing its head when described?
... that out of the described snakefly specimens from the Florissant Formation, the Raphidia funerata holotype is the most complete?
... that Alanqa is a newly described pterosaur from Morocco which had a wingspan of up to six metres?
... that the extinct genus Paleopanax is one of the oldest reliable records for the ginseng family?
... that with a 20 million year fossil record, Acer chaneyi has the longest fossil record of the Western North American maples?

... that the primary leaf veins for the extinct plant Trochodendron nastae are palmate rather than being pinnate like those in the living Trochodendron aralioides?
... that the Early Cretaceous crocodilian relative Susisuchus was one of the first mesoeucrocodylians to have a segmented shield of bony osteoderms over its back, which allowed for greater flexibility while swimming?
... that the extinct griffenfly genus Bohemiatupus inhabited peat-mires?
... that the extinct rose species Stonebergia columbiana is named for its type locality of British Columbia?
... that the Miocene maple Acer latahense is most similar in appearance to the living Honshū maple?

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General images - load new batch

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

Image 1A drawing comparing jaws was added in 1799 when Cuvier's 1796 presentation on living and fossil elephants was published. (from History of paleontology)
Image 2Fossil of the Taung child discovered in South Africa in 1924 (from History of paleontology)
Image 3Diagram 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 4Duria 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 5Geologic time scale from an 1861 book by Richard Owen shows the appearance of major animal types. (from History of paleontology)
Image 6Johann Jakob Scheuchzer tried to explain fossils using Biblical floods in his Herbarium of the Deluge (1709). (from History of paleontology)
Image 7A Spriggina fossil from the Ediacaran (from History of paleontology)
Image 8First 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 9Philippe-Charles Schmerling (from List of paleontologists)
Image 10A complete Anomalocaris fossil from the Burgess shale (from History of paleontology)
Image 11Illustration from Steno's 1667 paper shows a shark head and its teeth along with a fossil tooth for comparison. (from History of paleontology)
Image 12Illustration of fossil Iguanodon teeth with a modern iguana jaw for comparison from Mantell's 1825 paper describing Iguanodon (from History of paleontology)
Image 13Stephan Endlicher (from List of paleontologists)
Image 14Illustration of the fossil jaw of the Stonesfield mammal from Gideon Mantell's 1848 Wonders of Geology (from History of paleontology)
Image 15Elmer Riggs and H.W. Menke in Field Columbian Museum's paleontology lab, 1899 (from History of paleontology)
Image 16Photograph of the second Archaeopteryx skeleton to be found, taken in 1881 at the Natural History Museum, Berlin (from History of paleontology)
Image 17Illustration from William Smith's Strata by Organized Fossils (1817) (from History of paleontology)

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Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy, publishing his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen. Cope later married and moved from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years.

Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone Wars. Cope's financial fortunes soured after failed mining ventures in the 1880s. He experienced a resurgence in his career toward the end of his life before dying in 1897.

Cope's scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, but his contributions helped to define the field of American paleontology. He was a prodigious writer, with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime, although his rivals would debate the accuracy of his rapidly published works. He discovered, described, and named more than 1,000 vertebrate species including hundreds of fishes and dozens of dinosaurs. His proposals on the origin of mammalian molars and for the gradual enlargement of mammalian species over geologic time ("Cope's Law") are notable among his theoretical contributions. (see more...)

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On this day...

April 28:

1861 - Sava Athanasiu was born in Ruginești, Romania.
1889 - Charles E. Resser was born in East Berlin, Pennsylvania, USA
1932 - Truman H. Aldrich died in Birmingham, Alabama at age 83.
1996 - T. H. Clark died in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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Selected image

Fossil remains of various horse genera, showing the evolution of their skeletons, skulls and limb bones over time. The uppermost and most recent genus is that of the modern horse, Equus. Below that is Pliohippus, dating back to the late Miocene. Below that and older still is Merychippus of the middle Miocene. The bottom and oldest horse genus is Mesohippus from the late Eocene.
Photo credit: H. Zell