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

Tyrannosaurus (meaning 'tyrant lizard') is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex, commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is one of the dinosaurs most often featured in popular culture around the world. It hails from what is now western North America.

Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, Tyrannosaurus forelimbs were small and retained only two digits. Although other theropods rivaled or exceeded T. rex in size, it was the largest known tyrannosaurid and one of the largest known land predators, measuring over 13 metres (43 ft) in length and up to 7.5 tons in weight.

Fossils of some T. rex have been found in North American rock formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period (late Maastrichtian stage, 65 million years ago); it was among the last dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. More than 30 specimens of T. rex have now been identified, some nearly complete, which has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including its life history and biomechanics. The feeding habits and potential speed of T. rex remain controversial. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that one species of the extinct Eocene bulldog ant Ypresiomyrma reached up to 25 millimetres (0.98 in) in length?
... that the discovery of the fossil of Shenshou, a squirrel-like early mammal from the Tiaojishan Formation, pushed the origin of mammals back to the Late Triassic, 220 million to 200 million years ago?
... that Gustava Aigner made the first discovery of graptolites in the northern greywacke zone of the Alps, with her former fellow student, Ida Peltzmann, who named two species for her?
... that the extinct sumac Rhus rooseae was described from fossils over 35 million years old?
... that the clawless lobster Tricarina is known from a single fossil, obtained from an oil well 3,852 m (12,638 ft) below ground in western Iran?

... that the parareptile Eunotosaurus (restoration pictured) was once widely accepted as a transitional form between turtles and their prehistoric ancestors?
... that the extinct incense-cedar Calocedrus huashanensis is one of only three conifers found in the Ningming Formation?
...that corals, graptolites, brachiopods and trilobites are frequently used as index fossils?
... that the discovery of Babakotia radofilai, an extinct species of sloth lemur, helped to resolve the relationship between the indriids, sloth lemurs, and monkey lemurs?
... that researchers have identified the pictured life form which no longer lives on this planet?

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General images - load new batch

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

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

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Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

Petrified Forest National Park is a United States national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 146 square miles (380 km²), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962.

The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the park's rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the park's fossils since the early 20th century. (see more...)

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On this day...

May 14:

1887 - Alois Humbert died.

A Diplodocid Sauropod Survivor from the Early Cretaceous of South America

Pablo A. Gallina, Sebastián Apesteguía, Alejandro Haluza, Juan I. Canale

published 14 May 2014

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Selected image

Mounted skull and neck of the 150-million-year-old Late Jurassic theropod Allosaurus fragilis. The specimen was discovered in the U.S. state of Utah and is exhibited in the Galerie de paléontologie et d'anatomie comparée of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France.
Photo credit: Jebulon