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Paleontology

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   Paleontology or palaeontology (see Spelling differences) is the study
   of the history and development of life on Earth, including that of
   ancient plants and animals, based on the fossil record (evidence of
   their prehistoric existence as typically preserved in sedimentary
   rocks). This includes the study of body fossils, tracks ( ichnites),
   burrows, cast-off parts, fossilized feces ( coprolites), palynomorphs
   and chemical residues. See also paleoanthropology.

Overview

   Modern paleontology sets ancient life in its contexts by studying how
   long-term physical changes of global geography paleogeography and
   climate paleoclimate have affected the evolution of life, how
   ecosystems have responded to these changes and have changed the
   planetary environment in turn and how these mutual responses have
   affected today's patterns of biodiversity. Hence, paleontology overlaps
   with geology (the study of rocks and rock formations) as well as with
   botany, biology, zoology and ecology – fields concerned with life forms
   and how they interact.

   The major subdivisions of paleontology include paleozoology (animals),
   paleobotany (plants) and micropaleontology (microfossils).
   Paleozoologists may specialize in invertebrate paleontology, which
   deals with animals without backbones or in vertebrate paleontology,
   dealing with fossils of animals with backbones, including fossil
   hominids ( paleoanthropology). Micropaleontologists study microscopic
   fossils, including organic-walled microfossils whose study is called
   palynology.

   There are many developing specialties such as paleobiology,
   paleoecology, ichnology (the study of tracks and burrows) and taphonomy
   (the study of what happens to organisms after they expire). Major areas
   of study include the correlation of rock strata with their geologic
   ages and the study of evolution of lifeforms.

   Paleontology utilizes the same classic binomial nomenclature scheme,
   devised for the biology of living things by the mid-18th century
   Swedish biologist Carolus Linnaeus and increasingly sets these species
   in a genealogical framework, showing their degrees of interrelatedness
   using the still somewhat controversial technique of ' cladistics'.

   The primary economic importance of paleontology lies in the use of
   fossils to determine the age and nature of the rocks that contain them
   or the layers above or below. This information is vital to the mining
   industry and especially the petroleum industry. Simply looking at the
   fossils contained in a rock remains one of the fastest and most
   accurate means of telling how old that rock is.

   Fossils were known by primitive humans and were sometimes identified
   correctly as the remains of ancient lifeforms. The organized study of
   paleontology dates from the late 18th century. For a more complete
   historical overview see the article History of paleontology.

Notable paleontologists

   A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur
   vertebrae.
   Enlarge
   A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur
   vertebrae.

   History includes a number of prominent paleontologists. Charles Darwin
   collected fossils of South American mammals during his trip on the
   Beagle and examined petrified forests in Patagonia. Mary Anning was a
   notable early paleontologist. She found several landmark fossils, in
   her home town of Lyme Regis. Although self-taught, she collected and
   described them in a very systematic way. William Buckland, Richard
   Owen, Gideon Mantell, Georges Cuvier and Thomas Huxley were important
   early pioneers, in the field of paleontology. Thomas Jefferson took a
   keen interest in mammoth bones. Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles
   Marsh waged a famously fierce competition known as the Bone Wars in the
   late 19th century that involved some questionable practices, but which
   significantly advanced the understanding of the natural history of
   North America and vertebrate paleontology. Besides looking at mammal
   teeth and unearthing penguin skeletons, George Gaylord Simpson played a
   crucial role in bringing together ideas from biology, paleontology and
   genetics, to help create the 'Modern Synthesis' of evolutionary
   biology. His book "Tempo and Mode" is a classic in the field. Prominent
   names in invertebrate paleontology include Steven Stanley, Stephen Jay
   Gould, David Raup and Jack Sepkoski, who have done much to expand our
   understanding of long-term patterns in the evolution of life on earth.
   Large names in the field of paleoanthropology include Louis, Mary and
   Richard Leakey, Raymond Dart, Robert Broom, C.K. 'Bob' Brain, Kenneth
   Oakley, Robert Ardrey and Donald Johanson. In recent times, Mongolian
   paleontologist Rinchen Barsbold has done much to expand our
   understanding of dinosaur and bird evolution.

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