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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 (), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (), palynomorphs and chemical residues.
Basic Palaeontology is a basic textbook on the study of paleontology written by the palaeontologists Michael J. Benton and David A.T. Harper, and published by Prentice Hall in 1997. It was described in a 1998 review by palaeontologist Mark Purnell as being uniquely inclusive in its coverage of the subject, going into detail about the history of ...
The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (or TIP) published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, is a definitive multi-authored work of some 50 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and covering every phylum, class, order, family, and genus of fossil and extant (still living) invertebrate animals.
George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist.Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the modern synthesis, contributing Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944), The Meaning of Evolution (1949) and The Major Features of Evolution (1953).
Paleozoology uses the methods and principles of paleobiology to understand fauna, both vertebrates and invertebrates. See also vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, as well as paleoanthropology. Micropaleontology applies paleobiologic principles and methods to archaea, bacteria, protists and microscopic pollen/spores.
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).
Fusulinid from the Plattsmouth Chert, Red Oak, Iowa ().Micropaleontology can be roughly divided into four areas of study on the basis of microfossil composition: (a) calcareous, as in coccoliths and foraminifera, (b) phosphatic, as in the study of some vertebrates, (c) siliceous, as in diatoms and radiolaria, or (d) organic, as in the pollen and spores studied in palynology.