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

Sinoceratops /ˌsaɪnoʊˈsɛrətɒps/ is an extinct genus of ceratopsian dinosaur that lived approximately 72 to 66 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Shandong province in China. It was named in 2010 by Xu Xing et al. for three skulls from Zhucheng, China. Its name means "Chinese horned face from Zhucheng", after the location of its discovery.

Sinoceratops was a medium-sized, averagely-built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore. It could grow up to an estimated 6 m (19.7 ft) long and 2 metres (6.6 ft) high, and weigh up to 2 tonnes (2.0 long tons; 2.2 short tons). It was the first ceratopsid dinosaur discovered in China, and the only ceratopsid known from Asia. All other centrosaurines, and all chasmosaurines, are known from fossils discovered in North America, except for possibly Turanoceratops. Sinoceratops is also significant because it is one of the largest known centrosaurines, and is much larger than any other known basal members of this group.

Sinoceratops existed in the Xingezhuang Formation during the late Cretaceous. It lived alongside leptoceratopsids, saurolophines, and tyrannosaurines. The most common creature in the formation was Shantungosaurus, to whom most of the material has been assigned to. The animals living alongside Sinoceratops and Shantungosaurus were Zhuchengceratops, Huaxiaosaurus, and Zhuchengtyrannus. (see more...)

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Did you know?

A Prostylotermes kamboja preserved in amber

... that the extinct termite Prostylotermes is known from a female, male, and two eggs?
... that Archaeomarasmius, Aureofungus, Coprinites, Palaeoagaracites, and Protomycena are the only five genera of agaric mushrooms known from the fossil record?
... that the extinct, Miocene age, maple Acer browni ranged from southern Oregon to the north shore of the Haida Gwaii?
... that the extinct sweat bee Augochlora leptoloba is known from a single specimen now in a private collection in Turin, Italy?
... that Appianoporites, Margaretbarromyces, and Quatsinoporites are all fossil fungi from Vancouver Island, British Columbia?

... that the extinct witchalder Fothergilla malloryi (pictured) is the oldest confirmed member of the genus Fothergilla?
... that the flat-headed crocodilian relative Aegisuchus had a circular projection on top of its skull that may have served as an eyespot in mating displays?
... that the early Oligocene maple, Acer ashwilli, is known from only eight places in Oregon?
... that the extinct Eocene parasitic wasp Brevivulva electroma (pictured) was named from the Greek words meaning "short amber wrapper"?
... that the distinct fauna of the Kirtlandian includes the dinosaur Pentaceratops sternbergii?

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General images - load new batch

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

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

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Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

A transitional fossil is any fossilized remains of a life form that exhibits traits common to both an ancestral group and its derived descendant group. This is especially important where the descendant group is sharply differentiated by gross anatomy and mode of living from the ancestral group. These fossils serve as a reminder that taxonomic divisions are human constructs that have been imposed in hindsight on a continuum of variation. Because of the incompleteness of the fossil record, there is usually no way to know exactly how close a transitional fossil is to the point of divergence. Therefore, we can't assume transitional fossils are direct ancestors of more recent groups, though they are frequently used as models for such ancestors.

In 1859, when Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first published, the fossil record was poorly known. Indeed, Archaeopteryx was discovered just two years later and represents a classic transitional form between dinosaurs and birds. Many more transitional fossils have been discovered since then, and there is now abundant evidence of how all classes of vertebrates are related, much of it in the form of transitional fossils. The phrase missing link has been used extensively in popular writings on human evolution to refer to a perceived gap in the hominid evolutionary record. It is most commonly used to refer to any new transitional fossil finds. Scientists, however, do not use the term, as it refers to a pre-evolutionary view of nature. (see more...)

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