About Paleontology:When
people hear the
word paleontology, the first thing to spring to mind is usually thoughts of
dinosaurs and
skeletons mounted in
museums. Perhaps the image of a paleontologist is that of the
characters in the
movie Jurassic Park, or of some of the colorful
people who are interviewed for dinosaur
specials on
television.
While the study of dinosaurs and the
reconstruction of skeletons are both important areas of paleontology, they are by no means the only ones. Paleontology is nothing less than the
study of
life on
earth, from its origin to the present
day. This includes on the one
hand all the diversity of life, from
bacteria to
kelp to
dinosaurs. Paleontology also spans many areas of
science -- paleontologists must have training not only in
biology, but in
geology,
chemistry, and other fields as well. Because paleontology is such a diverse
field, several
subdisciplines are recognized. Each of these focusses more closely on particular kinds of
organisms,preservation types, or techniques.
Paleontogy Paleontology is the study of
fossils. A fossil is defined as any trace of a past life form. Thus, although
wood,
bones, and
shells are the most common fossils, under certain conditions soft tissues, tracks and trails, and even coprolites (fossil feces) may be preserved as fossils. Although most of the fossils that paleontologists study are several thousands to several billions of years
old, there is no absolute minimum
age for a biological
structure to be a fossil.
Paleontologists study these fossils and attempt to use them to reconstruct the
history of the
Earth and the life on it. Some study the ecology of the past; others work on the evolution of fossil taxa.