Contents
1 Overview
1.1 A historical science
1.2 Related sciences
1.3 Subdivisions
2 Sources of evidence
2.1 Body fossils
2.2 Trace fossils
2.3 Geochemical observations
3 Classifying ancient organisms
4 Estimating the dates of organisms
5 Overview of the history of life
5.1 Mass extinctions
6 History of paleontology
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
Overview
The simplest definition is "the study of ancient life".[2] Paleontology
seeks information about several aspects of past organisms: "their
identity and origin, their environment and evolution, and what they can
tell us about the Earth's organic and inorganic past".[3]
A historical science
Paleontology is one of the historical sciences, along with archaeology,
geology, astronomy, cosmology, philology and history itself.[4] This
means that it aims to describe phenomena of the past and reconstruct
their causes.[5] Hence it has three main elements: description of the
phenomena; developing a general theory about the causes of various
types of change; and applying those theories to specific facts.[4]
When trying to explain past phenomena, paleontologists and other
historical scientists often construct a set of hypotheses about the
causes and then look for a smoking gun, a piece of evidence that
indicates that one hypotheses is a better explanation than others.
Sometimes the smoking gun is discovered by a fortunate accident
during other research. For example, the discovery by Luis Alvarez
and Walter Alvarez of an iridium-rich layer at the
CretaceousTertiary boundary made asteroid impact and volcanism
the most favored explanations for the CretaceousPaleogene
extinction event.[5]
The other main type of science is experimental science, which is often said to work by conducting experiments
to disprove hypotheses about the workings and causes of natural phenomena note that this approach cannot
confirm a hypothesis is correct, since some later experiment may disprove it. However, when confronted with
totally unexpected phenomena, such as the first evidence for invisible radiation, experimental scientists often use
the same approach as historical scientists: construct a set of hypotheses about the causes and then look for a
"smoking gun".[5]
Related sciences
Paleontology lies on the boundary between biology and geology since paleontology focuses on the record of
past life but its main source of evidence is fossils, which are found in rocks.[6] For historical reasons
paleontology is part of the geology departments of many universities, because in the 19th century and early 20th
century geology departments found paleontological evidence important for estimating the ages of rocks while
biology departments showed little interest.[7]
Paleontology also has some overlap with archaeology, which primarily works with objects made by humans and
with human remains, while paleontologists are interested in the characteristics and evolution of humans as
organisms. When dealing with evidence about humans, archaeologists and paleontologists may work together
for example paleontologists might identify animal or plant fossils around an archaeological site, to discover what
the people who lived there ate; or they might analyze the climate at the time when the site was inhabited by
humans.[8]
In addition paleontology often uses techniques derived from other
sciences, including biology, osteology, ecology, chemistry, physics
and mathematics.[2] For example geochemical signatures from rocks
may help to discover when life first arose on Earth,[9] and analyses of
carbon isotope ratios may help to identify climate changes and even
to explain major transitions such as the PermianTriassic extinction
event.[10] A relatively recent discipline, molecular phylogenetics, often
helps by using comparisons of different modern organisms' DNA and
Analyses using engineering techniques
RNA to re-construct evolutionary "family trees"; it has also been used
show that Tyrannosaurus had a
to estimate the dates of important evolutionary developments,
devastating bite, but raise doubts
although this approach is controversial because of doubts about the
about how fast it could move.
reliability of the "molecular clock".[11] Techniques developed in
engineering have been used to analyse how ancient organisms might
have worked, for example how fast Tyrannosaurus could move and how powerful its bite was.[12][13] It is
relatively commonplace to study fossils using X-ray microtomography[14] A combination of paleontology,
biology, and archaeology, paleoneurology is the study of endocranial casts (or endocasts) of species related to
humans to learn about the evolution of human brains.[15]
Paleontology even contributes to astrobiology, the investigation of possible life on other planets, by developing
models of how life may have arisen and by providing techniques for detecting evidence of life.[16]
Subdivisions
As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised subdivisions.[17] Vertebrate paleontology
concentrates on fossils of vertebrates, from the earliest fish to the immediate ancestors of modern mammals.
Invertebrate paleontology deals with fossils of invertebrates such as molluscs, arthropods, annelid worms and
echinoderms. Paleobotany focuses on the study of fossil plants, but traditionally includes the study of fossil algae
and fungi. Palynology, the study of pollen and spores produced by land plants and protists, straddles the border
between paleontology and botany, as it deals with both living and fossil organisms. Micropaleontology deals
with all microscopic fossil organisms, regardless of the group to which they belong.[18]
Instead of focusing on individual organisms, paleoecology examines the interactions between different
organisms, such as their places in food chains, and the two-way interaction between organisms and their
environment.[19] One example is the development of oxygenic photosynthesis by bacteria, which hugely
increased the productivity and diversity of ecosystems.[20] This also caused the oxygenation of the atmosphere.
Together, these were a prerequisite for the evolution of the most complex eucaryotic cells, from which all
multicellular organisms are built.[21]
Paleoclimatology, although sometimes treated as part of paleoecology,[18] focuses more on the history of Earth's
climate and the mechanisms that have changed it[22] which have sometimes included evolutionary
developments, for example the rapid expansion of land plants in the Devonian period removed more carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere, reducing the greenhouse effect and thus helping to cause an ice age in the
Carboniferous period.[23]
Biostratigraphy, the use of fossils to work out the chronological order in which rocks were formed, is useful to
both paleontologists and geologists.[24] Biogeography studies the spatial distribution of organisms, and is also
linked to geology, which explains how Earth's geography has changed over time.[25]
Sources of evidence
Body fossils
Occasionally, unusual environments may preserve soft tissues. These lagersttten allow paleontologists to
examine the internal anatomy of animals that in other sediments are represented only by shells, spines, claws,
etc. if they are preserved at all. However, even lagersttten present an incomplete picture of life at the time.
The majority of organisms living at the time are probably not represented because lagersttten are restricted to a
narrow range of environments, e.g. where soft-bodied organisms can be preserved very quickly by events such
as mudslides; and the exceptional events that cause quick burial make it difficult to study the normal
environments of the animals.[30] The sparseness of the fossil record means that organisms are expected to exist
long before and after they are found in the fossil record this is known as the Signor-Lipps effect.[31]
Trace fossils
Trace fossils consist mainly of tracks and burrows, but also include coprolites (fossil feces) and marks left by
feeding.[26][32] Trace fossils are particularly significant because they represent a data source that is not limited to
animals with easily fossilized hard parts, and they reflect organisms' behaviours. Also many traces date from
significantly earlier than the body fossils of animals that are thought to have been capable of making them.[33]
Whilst exact assignment of trace fossils to their makers is generally impossible, traces may for example provide
the earliest physical evidence of the appearance of moderately complex animals (comparable to
earthworms).[32]
Geochemical observations
Geochemical observations may help to deduce the global level of biological activity, or the affinity of certain
fossils. For example geochemical features of rocks may reveal when life first arose on Earth,[9] and may provide
evidence of the presence of eucaryotic cells, the type from which all multicellular organisms are built.[34]
Analyses of carbon isotope ratios may help to explain major transitions such as the PermianTriassic extinction
event.[10]
Paleontologists
generally use
approaches based
on cladistics, a
technique for
working out the
evolutionary
"family tree" of a
set of
Levels in the
organisms.[36] It
Linnean
works by the logic
taxonomy
that, if groups B
and C have more
similarities to each other than either has
to group A, then B and C are more
closely related to each other than either is
to A. Characters that are compared may
be anatomical, such as the presence of a
notochord, or molecular, by comparing
sequences of DNA or proteins. The
result of a successful analysis is a
hierarchy of clades groups that share a
common ancestor. Ideally the "family
tree" has only two branches leading from
each node ("junction"), but sometimes
Mammals
Reptiles
Extinct reptiles
Lizards and snakes
Archosaurs
?
Extinct
Archosaurs
Crocodilians
Dinosaurs
?
Extinct
Dinosaurs
? Birds
Simple example cladogram
Warm-bloodedness evolved somewhere in the
synapsidmammal transition.
? Warm-bloodedness must also have evolved at one of
these points an example of convergent evolution. [35]
there is too little information to achieve this and paleontologists have to make do with junctions that have several
branches. The cladistic technique is sometimes fallible, as some features, such as wings or camera eyes, evolved
more than once, convergently this must be taken into account in analyses.[35]
Evolutionary developmental biology, commonly abbreviated to "Evo Devo", also helps paleontologists to
produce "family trees". For example the embryological development of some modern brachiopods suggests that
brachiopods may be descendants of the halkieriids, which became extinct in the Cambrian period.[38]
It is also possible to estimate how long ago two living clades diverged i.e. approximately how long ago their
last common ancestor must have lived by assuming that DNA mutations accumulate at a constant rate. These
"molecular clocks", however, are fallible, and provide only a very approximate timing: for example, they are not
sufficiently precise and reliable for estimating when the groups that feature in the Cambrian explosion first
evolved,[45] and estimates produced by different techniques may vary by a factor of two.[11]
Multicellular life is composed only of eukaryotic cells, and the earliest evidence for it is the Francevillian Group
Fossils from 2,100 million years ago,[56] although specialization of cells for different functions first appears
between 1,430 million years ago (a possible fungus) and 1,200 million years ago (a probable red alga). Sexual
reproduction may be a prerequisite for specialization of cells, as an asexual multicellular organism might be at
risk of being taken over by rogue cells that retain the ability to reproduce.[57][58]
The earliest known animals are cnidarians from about 580 million years ago, but these are so modern-looking
that the earliest animals must have appeared before then.[59] Early fossils of animals are rare because they did
not develop mineralized hard parts that fossilize easily until about 548 million years ago.[60] The earliest modernlooking bilaterian animals appear in the Early Cambrian, along with several "weird wonders" that bear little
obvious resemblance to any modern animals. There is a long-running debate about whether this Cambrian
explosion was truly a very rapid period of evolutionary experimentation; alternative views are that modernlooking animals began evolving earlier but fossils of their precursors have not yet been found, or that the "weird
wonders" are evolutionary "aunts" and "cousins" of modern groups.[61] Vertebrates remained an obscure group
until the first fish with jaws appeared in the Late Ordovician.[62][63]
The spread of life from water to land required organisms to solve several
problems, including protection against drying out and supporting themselves
against gravity.[64][65][66][67] The earliest evidence of land plants and land
invertebrates date back to about 476 million years ago and 490 million years ago
respectively.[66][68] The lineage that produced land vertebrates evolved later but
very rapidly between 370 million years ago and 360 million years ago;[69] recent
discoveries have overturned earlier ideas about the history and driving forces
behind their evolution.[70] Land plants were so successful that they caused an
ecological crisis in the Late Devonian, until the evolution and spread of fungi that
could digest dead wood.[23]
At about 13 centimetres
(5.1 in) the Early
Cretaceous Yanoconodon
was longer than the
average mammal of the
time.[71]
and diversity, and some took to the air and the sea.[78][79][80]
3 million years ago.[85] There is a long-running debate about whether modern humans are descendants of a
single small population in Africa, which then migrated all over the world less than 200,000 years ago and
replaced previous hominine species, or arose worldwide at the same time as a result of interbreeding.[86]
Mass extinctions
Life on earth has suffered occasional mass extinctions
at least since 542 million years ago. Although they are
disasters at the time, mass extinctions have sometimes
accelerated the evolution of life on earth. When
dominance of particular ecological niches passes from
one group of organisms to another, it is rarely
because the new dominant group is "superior" to the
old and usually because an extinction event eliminates
the old dominant group and makes way for the new
one.[87][88]
The fossil record appears to show that the rate of
extinction is slowing down, with both the gaps
between mass extinctions becoming longer and the
average and background rates of extinction
decreasing. However, it is not certain whether the
actual rate of extinction has altered, since both of
these observations could be explained in several
ways:[89]
OS
Late D
TrJ
KPg
(H)
The oceans may have become more hospitable to life over the last 500 million years and less vulnerable
to mass extinctions: dissolved oxygen became more widespread and penetrated to greater depths; the
development of life on land reduced the run-off of nutrients and hence the risk of eutrophication and
anoxic events; marine ecosystems became more diversified so that food chains were less likely to be
disrupted.[90][91]
Reasonably complete fossils are very rare, most extinct organisms are represented only by partial fossils,
and complete fossils are rarest in the oldest rocks. So paleontologists have mistakenly assigned parts of
the same organism to different genera, which were often defined solely to accommodate these finds the
story of Anomalocaris is an example of this.[92] The risk of this mistake is higher for older fossils
because these are often unlike parts of any living organism. Many "superfluous" genera are represented
by fragments that are not found again, and these "superfluous" genera appear to become extinct very
quickly.[89]
Biodiversity in the fossil record, which is
"the number of distinct genera alive at any given time; that is, those whose first occurrence predates
and whose last occurrence postdates that time"[93]
shows a different trend: a fairly swift rise from 542 to 400 million years ago, a slight decline from
400 to 200 million years ago, in which the devastating PermianTriassic extinction event is an important factor,
and a swift rise from 200 million years ago to the present.[93]
History of paleontology
Although paleontology became established around 1800, earlier thinkers had noticed aspects of the fossil
record. The ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes (570480 BC) concluded from fossil sea shells that some
areas of land were once under water.[94] During the Middle Ages the Persian naturalist Ibn Sina, known as
Avicenna in Europe, discussed fossils and proposed a theory of petrifying fluids on which Albert of Saxony
elaborated in the 14th century.[95] The Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo (10311095) proposed a theory of climate
change based on the presence of petrified bamboo in regions that in his time were too dry for bamboo.[96]
All genera
In early modern
"Well-defined" genera
Europe, the
Trend line
systematic study of
"Big Five" mass extinctions
Other mass extinctions
fossils emerged as
an integral part of
the changes in
natural philosophy
that occurred
during the Age of
Million years ago
Thousands of genera
Reason. At the end
of the 18th century Phanerozoic biodiversity as shown by the fossil
Georges Cuvier's
record
work established
comparative
anatomy as a scientific discipline and, by proving that some fossil animals
resembled no living ones, demonstrated that animals could become
extinct, leading to the emergence of paleontology.[97] The expanding
knowledge of the fossil record also played an increasing role in the
development of geology, particularly stratigraphy.[98]
The first half of the 19th century saw geological and paleontological
activity become increasingly well organized with the growth of geologic
societies and museums[99][100] and an increasing number of professional
geologists and fossil specialists. Interest increased for reasons that were not purely scientific, as geology and
paleontology helped industrialists to find and exploit natural resources such as coal.[101]
This contributed to a rapid increase in knowledge about the history of life on Earth and to progress in the
definition of the geologic time scale, largely based on fossil evidence. In 1822 Henri Marie Ducrotay de
Blanville, editor of Journal de Phisique, coined the word "palaeontology" to refer to the study of ancient living
organisms through fossils.[102] As knowledge of life's history continued to improve, it became increasingly
obvious that there had been some kind of successive order to the development of life. This encouraged early
evolutionary theories on the transmutation of species.[103] After Charles Darwin published Origin of Species in
1859, much of the focus of paleontology shifted to understanding evolutionary paths, including human evolution,
and evolutionary theory.[103]
The last half of the 19th century saw a tremendous expansion in paleontological activity, especially in North
America.[105] The trend continued in the 20th century with additional regions of the Earth being opened to
systematic fossil collection. Fossils found in China near the end of the 20th century have been particularly
important as they have provided new information about the earliest evolution of animals, early fish, dinosaurs
and the evolution of birds.[106] The last few decades of the 20th century
saw a renewed interest in mass extinctions and their role in the evolution
of life on Earth.[107] There was also a renewed interest in the Cambrian
explosion that apparently saw the development of the body plans of most
animal phyla. The discovery of fossils of the Ediacaran biota and
developments in paleobiology extended knowledge about the history of
life back far before the Cambrian.[61]
See also
European land mammal age
Fossil collecting
List of fossil sites (with link directory)
List of notable fossils
List of transitional fossils
Paleogenetics
Radiometric dating
Taxonomy of commonly fossilised invertebrates
Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology
List of paleontologists
Biostratigraphy
Notes
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External links
Smithsonian's Paleobiology website (http://paleobiology.si.edu/)