Portal:Paleontology

Trilobite (Kolihapeltis), Early Devonian (c. 400 million years old), Morocco. Paleontology, palaeontology or palæontology (from Greek: παλαιό (palaio), "old, ancient"; όν (on), "being"; and logos, "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised faeces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Modern paleontology sets ancient life in its context 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 adapted 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 specialise 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. (see more...) Template:/box-footer More anniversaries... The fossils of the Burgess Shale, like the Burgess Shale itself, formed around 505 million years ago in the Mid Cambrian period. They were discovered in Canada in 1886, and Charles Doolittle Walcott collected over 60,000 specimens in a series of field trips up from 1909 to 1924. After a period of neglect from the 1930s to the early 1960s, new excavations and re-examinations of Walcott's collection resumed and paleontologists continue to discover new species. These fossils have been preserved in a distinctive style known as Burgess shale type preservation, which preserves fairly tough tissues such as cuticle as thin films and soft tissues as solid shapes. In the 1970s and early 1980s the Burgess fossils were largely regarded as evidence that the familiar phyla of animals appeared very rapidly in the Early Cambrian, in what is often called the Cambrian explosion. This view was already known to Charles Darwin, who regarded it as one of the greatest difficulties for the theory of evolution he presented in The Origin of Species. However, from the early 1980s the cladistics method of analysing "evolutionary family trees" has persuaded most researchers that many of the Burgess Shale's "weird wonders", such as Opabinia and Hallucinogenia, were evolutionary relatives of modern animal groups rather than a rapid proliferation of separate phyla, some of which were short-lived. Nevertheless there is still debate, sometimes vigorous, about the relationships between some groups of animals. (see more...) On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent research findings. Ideas about the transmutation of species were controversial as they conflicted with beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique and unlike animals. The book was written for non-specialist readers and attracted widespread interest upon its publication. As Darwin was an eminent scientist, his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion. Within two decades there was widespread scientific agreement that evolution, with a branching pattern of common descent, had occurred, but scientists were slow to give natural selection the significance that Darwin thought appropriate. During the "eclipse of Darwinism" from the 1880s to the 1930s, various other mechanisms of evolution were given more credit. With the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s, Darwin's concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection became central to modern evolutionary theory, and it has now become the unifying concept of the life sciences. (see more...) File:Sue TRex Replica Skull.JPG 100x100px ... that within the United States, dinosaur fossils (example pictured) have been found in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Wyoming, but not in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, or Wisconsin? ... that Ekgmowechashala was the only North American genus of primate during the Late Oligocene? ... that lice from mummified guinea pigs and mites preserved in amber while feeding on spiders have provided evidence for researchers in the field of paleoparasitology? ... that in addition to some isolated teeth and a jaw fragment, the Mesozoic mammals of Madagascar include the most complete mammalian skeleton known from the Mesozoic of Gondwana? ... that the extinct Neocorynura electra, found in Dominican amber, is the only known species of Neocorynura "sweat bee" from the Greater Antilles? ... that the fossil sawfly species Eriocampa tulameenensis was found along the Canadian Pacific rail line near Princeton, British Columbia? ... that a single spoon-shaped lower jaw belonging to the goniopholidid crocodyliform Sunosuchus is the most well preserved fossil found from the Phu Kradung Formation in Thailand? ... that although it was first classified as a reptile, the extinct genus Batropetes (restoration pictured) is now known to be a microsaur amphibian? Close up image of petrified wood from Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA. Photo credit: Jim Gordon Template:/box-header General - Paleontology - Fossil - Evolution - Extinction History - History of paleontology - Bone Wars - List of years in paleontology Locations - List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations - List of fossil sites - Como Bluff - Coon Creek Formation - Dinosaur Cove - Dinosaur National Monument - Dinosaur Park Formation - Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum - Glen Rose Formation - Hell Creek Formation - Lance Formation - Morrison Formation - Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite - Two Medicine Formation Paleontologists - Mary Anning - Robert T. Bakker - Barnum Brown - William Buckland - Edward Drinker Cope - Jack Horner - Gideon Mantell - Othniel Charles Marsh - John Ostrom - Dong Zhiming Geologic Time - Paleozoic Era - Cambrian (Early Cambrian - Middle Cambrian - Furongian) - Ordovician (Early Ordovician - Middle Ordovician - Late Ordovician) - Silurian (Llandovery - Wenlock - Ludlow - Pridoli) - Devonian (Early Devonian - Middle Devonian - Late Devonian) - Carboniferous (Mississippian - Pennsylvanian) - Permian (Cisuralian - Guadalupian - Lopingian) - Mesozoic Era - Triassic (Early Triassic - Middle Triassic - Late Triassic) - Jurassic (Early Jurassic - Middle Jurassic - Late Jurassic) - Cretaceous (Early Cretaceous - Late Cretaceous) - Cenozoic Era - Paleogene (Paleocene - Eocene - Oligocene) - Neogene (Miocene - Pliocene) - Quaternary (Pleistocene - Holocene) Fringe and Pseudoscience - Creationist perspectives on dinosaurs - Living dinosaurs Popular Culture - Cultural depictions of dinosaurs - Jurassic Park (novel) - Jurassic Park (film) - Stegosaurus in popular culture -Tyrannosaurus in popular culture - Walking with... Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header Featured paleontology articles - Acrocanthosaurus - Albertosaurus - Allosaurus - Archaeopteryx - Chicxulub Crater - Compsognathus - Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event - Daspletosaurus - Deinonychus - Deinosuchus - Dinosaur - Diplodocus - Gorgosaurus - Iguanodon - Lambeosaurus - List of dinosaurs - Majungasaurus - Massospondylus - Parasaurolophus - Psittacosaurus - Stegosaurus - Styracosaurus - Tarbosaurus - Thescelosaurus - Triceratops - Tyrannosaurus - Velociraptor Good paleontology articles - Abelisauridae - Alioramus - Amphicoelias - Ankylosaurus - "Archaeoraptor" - Batrachotomus - Ceratopsia - Coelurus - Dromaeosauridae - Giganotosaurus - Gryposaurus - Heterodontosauridae - Herrerasaurus - Hypacrosaurus - Kritosaurus - Othnielosaurus - Pachycephalosaurus - Saurolophus - Sauropelta - Scelidosaurus - Species of Allosaurus - Species of Psittacosaurus - Spinosaurus - Tyrannosauroidea Template:/box-footer ▼ Paleontology ► Prehistoric life ► Paleontological sites ► Paleontologists Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Andrzej Elżanowski - Cañadon Asfalto Formation - Csehbánya Formation - Eijnhoro Formation - Elongatoolithus - Jialingpus - Khukhtek Formation - Malargüe Group - Middle Stubensandstein - oogenus/oospecies - Sânpetru Formation - St. Mary Formation - Udurchukan Formation Expand : Allosaurid - Archaeodontosaurus - Archaeornithomimus - Asiatosaurus - Avemetatarsalia - Bagaraatan - Becklespinax - Cerapoda - Ceratosauria - Club (zoology) - Deinonychosauria - Efraasia - Fukuiraptor - Gastonia (dinosaur) - Graciliraptor - Heterodontosauriformes - Huayangosaurus - Iguanodont - Jiangshanosaurus - Kaijiangosaurus - Koparion - Lexovisaurus - Lukousaurus - Megalosaurid - Mussaurus - Ornithomimoides - Pantydraco - Plateosauridae - Pyroraptor - Quaesitosaurus - Rapator - Santanaraptor - Shanag - Siamotyrannus - Stegosaurides - Stenopelix - Tuojiangosaurus - Urbacodon - Velocipes - Vulcanodon - Vulcanodontidae - Wellnhoferia - Xinjiangovenator - Yunnanosaurus - Youngina - Zalmoxes Stubs : Dinosaur stubs Prehistoric reptile stubs Prehistoric mammal stubs Other : Fabrosaurus (needs references) Current Paleontology FACs - None yet... Template:/box-footer Time Earth sciences Paleontology Extinct and Endangered Species Paleozoic Mesozoic Cenozoic Dinosaurs What are portals? List of portals Featured portals