Home > Paleontology

1 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. So paleontology overlaps with geology, the study of rocks and rock formations, and with botany, biology, zoologyThis article is the top of the Zoology series. History of zoology (before Darwin) History of zoology (since Darwin) Zoology is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. History of zoology Main articles History of zoology (before Darwi, and ecologyEcology is the branch of science that studies the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and the interactions between organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both its physical habitat, which can be described as th, fields concerned with living creatures and how they interact. PalynologyPalynology is the science that studies contemporary and fossil palynomorphs, including pollen, spores, dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts, together with particulate organic matter (POM) and kerogen found in sedimentary rocks a is the study of pollens, whether modern or geological.

The major subdivisions of paleontology include paleozoologyPaleozoology is the branch of paleontology dealing with the recovery and identification of animal remains from archeological (or even geological) contexts, and their use in the reconstruction of past environments and economies. Animal remains are found in (animals), paleobotanyPaleobotany is the branch of paleontology dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use in the reconstruction of past environments. It shares some common ground with palynology. Plant remains are fou (plants), and micropaleontologyMicropaleontology the study of microfossils, is a branch of paleontology. Microfossils are fossils generally smaller than 1 mm, whose study requires the use of light microscopy or scanning electron microscopy. Fossils which can be studied with the naked e (microfossils). Paleozoologists may specialize in invertebrate paleontologyA Classification of Invertebrate Paleontology # Kingdom Protoctista ## Phylum Protozoa ### Subphylum Sarcomastigophora #### Class Sarcodina ##### Subclass Rhizopoda ###### Order Foraminifera ####### Suborder Allogromiina #######Suborder Textulariina #####, which deals with animals without backbones, or in

There are many developing specialties such as paleoecology, paleobotany, 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 industries 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 man and were sometimes identified correctly as the remains of ancient lifeforms. The organized study of paleontology dates from the late 18th century.