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Paleontology (/ ˌ p eɪ l i ɒ n ˈ t ɒ l ə dʒ i, ˌ p æ l i-,-ən-/ PAY-lee-on-TOL-ə-jee, PAL-ee-, -ən-), also spelled palaeontology [a] or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present).
Bust of the paleontologist Georges Cuvier (left) and a cast skeleton of Palaeotherium magnum (named by Cuvier in 1804, right), Cuvier Museum of Montbéliard. Paleontology (/ ˌ p eɪ l i ɒ n ˈ t ɒ l ə dʒ i, ˌ p æ l i-,-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 the start of the ...
Hence, paleontology overlaps with geology (the study of rocks and rock formations) as well as with botany, biology, zoology and ecology – fields concerned with life forms and how they interact. The major subdivisions of paleontology include paleozoology (animals), paleobotany (plants) and micropaleontology (microfossils).
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. [1] This includes the study of body fossils, tracks ( ichnites ), burrows , cast-off parts, fossilised feces ( coprolites ), palynomorphs and chemical residues .
Paleontology – Study of life before the Holocene epoch, often involving fossils and pollen . Paleopedology – Discipline studying soils of the past eras; Paleosol – Soil buried under sediment or not representative of current environmental conditions; Physical geography – Study of processes and patterns in the natural environment
Molecular paleontology refers to the recovery and analysis of DNA, proteins, carbohydrates, or lipids, and their diagenetic products from ancient human, animal, and plant remains. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The field of molecular paleontology has yielded important insights into evolutionary events, species' diasporas , the discovery and characterization of ...
The history of paleontology traces the history of the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the fossil record left behind by living organisms. Since it is concerned with understanding living organisms of the past, paleontology can be considered to be a field of biology, but its historical development has been closely tied to geology and the effort to understand the ...
Classic paleoecology uses data from fossils and subfossils to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past. It involves the study of fossil organisms and their associated remains (such as shells, teeth, pollen, and seeds), which can help in the interpretation of their life cycle, living interactions, natural environment, communities, and manner of death and burial.