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

Styracosaurus (meaning 'spiked lizard') was a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period (Campanian stage), about 74 to 72 million years ago. It had four to six long horns extending from its neck frill, a smaller horn on each of its cheeks and a single horn protruding from its nose, which was around 60 centimeters (2 ft) long and 15 centimeters (6 in) wide. The function or functions of the horns and frills have been the subject of debate for many years.

Styracosaurus was a large dinosaur, reaching lengths of 5.5 meters (18 ft) and weighing nearly 3 tons. It stood about 1.8 meters (6 ft) tall. Styracosaurus possessed four short legs and a bulky body. Its tail was rather short. It also had a beak and flat cheek teeth, indicating that its diet was herbivorous. Like other ceratopsians, this dinosaur may have been a herd animal, traveling in large groups, as suggested by bonebeds. Named by Lawrence Lambe in 1913, Styracosaurus is a member of the Centrosaurinae. Three species, S. albertensis, S. ovatus, and S. parksi are currently assigned to Styracosaurus, though the last species may be synonymous with S. albertensis. Other species assigned to the genus have since been reassigned elsewhere. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that highlights from the history of hadrosaur research include the first dinosaur fossils to be mounted in a museum, the colossal Shantungosaurus, and Maiasaura nesting grounds in Montana?
... that the family placement for the fossil moth genus Dominickus was not noticed until entomologist Norman Tindale was looking at pictures of modern moths from Australia?
... that the extinct Lotus Nelumbo aureavallis is known from Eocene rocks in western North Dakota?
... that, in one study on the aetosaur Redondasuchus, the orientation of a diagram in the paper may have contributed to the misidentification of its holotype as a left scute rather than a right?
... that Augustasaurus' name comes from the mountain range of northwestern Nevada, where its fossilized bones were first discovered?

... that only one side of the extinct parasitic wasp Neanaperiallus is visible in its sole fossilized specimen?
... that the fossil relative of the House Sparrow Passer predomesticus is known only from two upper jaw bones?
... that of the three described species in the Eocene bulldog ant genus Avitomyrmex, one species is known only from worker caste individuals?
... that the extinct Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Kenya was the largest true crocodile and may have eaten early human ancestors?
... that historical therizinosaur research misinterpreted these unusual bird-like herbivorous dinosaurs as giant turtles, semiaquatic fish-eaters, and tree-climbing insectivores?

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General images - load new batch

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

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

May 19:

1845 - Jean Jacques Nicolas Huot died in Versaille, France.
1876 - William King Gregory was born in Greenwich Village, New York, USA.
1940 - Farish Jenkins was born in New York City, New York, USA.
2006 - Ginny Kasparson was sentenced to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to being accessory to the 2005 murder of Charles Repenning in Lakewood, Colorado, USA.
2010 - Hans J. Hofmann died in Montreal, Canada.

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A mounted skeleton of a Late Cretaceous mosasaurid species belonging to the genus Plioplatecarpus, probably P. ictericus. In life the animal would have been about 5.5 m in length. The mounted skeleton is actually a composite of two individuals collected from the Niobrara Formation, of Kansas, USA and is exhibited in the Museum für Naturkunde in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Photo credit: H. Zell