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...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

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...)

More articles...

edit

Did you know?

An Anochetus dubius preserved in amber

... that the first described fossil of Anochetus dubius is surrounded by a brownish bacterial growth?
... that amber fossils of ants carrying the extinct mealybug genus Electromyrmococcus represent the oldest record of symbiosis between mealybugs and Acropyga ants?
... that Aquila bullockensis, an extinct species of bird, is the oldest known true eagle from Australia?
... that the extinct hazel species Corylus johnsonii (fruit pictured) resembles three modern hazels found in China?
... that the recently discovered Eocypselus rowei may be ancestral to both hummingbirds and swifts?

... that the Cretaceous terrestrial crocodilian Araripesuchus is known from five distinct species, two from Africa and the other three from South America?
... that Plesiopithecus, a fossil primate from the late Eocene in Egypt, closely resembles the aye-aye of Madagascar and raises questions about the evolutionary history of lemurs?
... that the extinct moth Epiborkhausenites is noted for having very similar color patterning to the living species Tubuliferola josephinae and Hofmannophila pseudospretella?
... that the extinct amphibian Cryobatrachus (restoration pictured) was discovered in the Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica?
... that fossils from the Paleocene-age Cerrejón Formation in Colombia are the earliest record of Neotropical rainforests?

More did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

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

edit

Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the first installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. It is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, with a screenplay written by Crichton and David Koepp. The film centers on the fictional Isla Nublar, an islet located off Central America's Pacific Coast, near Costa Rica Nicaragua border, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs.

Following an extensive $65 million marketing campaign, which included licensing deals with 100 companies, Jurassic Park grossed over $900 million worldwide in its original theatrical run. It surpassed Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to become the highest-grossing film until Titanic (1997). Jurassic Park was well received by critics, who praised its special effects and Spielberg's direction but criticized the script. The film won more than 20 awards (including 3 Academy Awards), mostly for its visual effects. Jurassic Park is considered by many to be one of the greatest films of the 1990s and in some cases of all time, as well as a landmark in the vector of visual effects regarding its computer-generated imagery and animatronics.

Jurassic Park was followed by two sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III, both of which were box office successes but received mixed critical responses. A third sequel, Jurassic World, is set for release on June 12, 2015. (see more...)

More articles...

edit

On this day...

May 8:

1891 - Alexander Keyserling died in Raikküla Parish.
1905 - Curt Teichert was born in Königsberg, German Empire.
1969 - Remington Kellogg died of a heart attack in Washington, D.C., USA at age 76.

Euoplocephalus tutus and the Diversity of Ankylosaurid Dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA

Victoria M. Arbour, Philip J. Currie

published 08 May 2013

An Additional Baurusuchid from the Cretaceous of Brazil with Evidence of Interspecific Predation among Crocodyliformes

Pedro L. Godoy, Felipe C. Montefeltro, Mark A. Norell, Max C. Langer

published 08 May 2014

More anniversaries...

edit

Selected image

Various views of a shell of the Pliocene snail species Petaloconchus intortus from Baschi, Italy. The specimen is 2.9 cm long.
Photo credit: H. Zell