Portal:Prehistoric mammals

The Palaeontology Portal

Introduction

Paleontology or palaeontology is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geologic time, and assess the interactions between prehistoric organisms and their natural environment. While paleontological observations are known from at least the 6th century BC, the foundation of paleontology as a science dates back to the work of Georges Cuvier in 1796. Cuvier demonstrated evidence for the concept of extinction and how the life of the past was not necessarily the same as that of the present. The field developed rapidly over the course of the following decades, and the French word paléontologie was introduced for the study in 1822, which was derived from the Ancient Greek word for 'ancient' and words describing relatedness and a field of study. Further advances in the field accompanied the work of Charles Darwin who popularized the concept of evolution. Together, evolution and extinction can be understood as complementary processes that shaped the history of life.

Paleontology overlaps the most with the fields of geology and biology. It draws on technology and analysis of a wide range of sciences to apply them to the study of life and environments of the past, particularly for the subdisciplines of paleobiology and paleoecology that are analogous to biology and ecology. Paleontology also contributes to other sciences, being utilized for biostratigraphy to reconstruct the geologic time scale of Earth, or in studies on extinction to establish both external and internal factors that can lead to the disappearance of a species. Much of the history of life is now better understood because of advances in paleontology and the increase in interdisciplinary studies. Several improvements in understanding have occurred from the introduction of theoretical analysis to paleontology in the 1950s and 1960s which led to the rise of more focused fields of paleontology that assess the changing geography and climate of Earth, the phylogenetic relationships between different species, and the analysis of how fossilization occurs and what biases can impact the quality of the fossil record. (Full article...)

Selected article on the prehistoric world and its legacies

Velociraptor (meaning 'swift thief') was a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 83 to 70 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. There is only one currently recognized species, V. mongoliensis, although others have been assigned in the past. Fossils of this species have been found in central Asia, from both Inner and Outer Mongolia.

Smaller than other dromaeosaurids like Deinonychus and Achillobator, the turkey-sized Velociraptor nevertheless shared many of the same anatomical features. It was a bipedal carnivore with a long, stiffened tail and had an enlarged, sickle-shaped claw on each hindfoot, which is thought to have been used to kill its prey. Velociraptor can be distinguished from other dromaeosaurids by its long and low skull, with an upturned snout.

Due in large part to its prominent role in Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park and the subsequent motion picture series, Velociraptor (commonly shortened to 'raptor') is one of the dinosaur genera most familiar to the general public. It is also well-known to paleontologists, with over a dozen recovered fossil skeletons — the most of any dromaeosaurid. One particularly famous specimen shows a Velociraptor locked in combat with a Protoceratops. (see more...)

Did you know?

...that the Burgsvik beds, a geological formation exposed on Gotland, Sweden, contain the only fossil euglenid ever discovered?
...that the extinct species of Edaphodon, a type of rabbitfish related to the shark, grazed along the bottom of the ocean like land-dwelling herbivores do now?
... that the Paleocene Alaskan maple Acer alaskense was described from a fossil leaf that may be atypical for the species?
... that Termitaradus protera was the first termite bug found in amber?
... that Hyptia deansi is the only fossil ensign wasp described from Mexican amber?

... that the largest known ovules produced by any non-flowering seed-plant came from the Medullosales (fossilized leaves pictured), an order of extinct seed ferns?
... that the Late Cretaceous crocodile relative Simosuchus (restoration pictured) ate plants and had a pug-nosed snout?
...that though no fossil grasses have been discovered, the earliest-known grassland ecosystem, the 30+ million-year-old Tinguiririca fauna of Chile, can be detected through the grazers' teeth?
... that the extinct hangingfly genera Formosibittacus, Jurahylobittacus, and Mongolbittacus are only known from the Middle Jurassic of China?
... that the extinct legume Hymenaea allendis is the second Hymenaea species described from Mexican amber?

General images -

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

Image 1Elmer Riggs and H.W. Menke in Field Columbian Museum's paleontology lab, 1899 (from History of paleontology)
Image 2First 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 3A complete Anomalocaris fossil from the Burgess Shale (from History of paleontology)
Image 4Philippe-Charles Schmerling (from List of paleontologists)
Image 5Stephan Endlicher (from List of paleontologists)
Image 6Photograph of the second Archaeopteryx skeleton to be found, taken in 1881 at the Natural History Museum, Berlin (from History of paleontology)
Image 7Geologic time scale from an 1861 book by Richard Owen shows the appearance of major animal types. (from History of paleontology)
Image 8Fossil of the Taung child discovered in South Africa in 1924 (from History of paleontology)
Image 9Illustration from Steno's 1667 paper shows a shark head and its teeth along with a fossil tooth for comparison. (from History of paleontology)
Image 10A Spriggina fossil from the Ediacaran (from History of paleontology)
Image 11Johann Jakob Scheuchzer tried to explain fossils using Biblical floods in his Herbarium of the Deluge (1709). (from History of paleontology)
Image 12Duria 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 13Illustration of fossil Iguanodon teeth with a modern iguana jaw for comparison from Mantell's 1825 paper describing Iguanodon (from History of paleontology)
Image 14Illustration from William Smith's Strata by Organized Fossils (1817) (from History of paleontology)
Image 15A drawing comparing jaws was added in 1799 when Cuvier's 1796 presentation on living and fossil elephants was published. (from History of paleontology)
Image 16Diagram 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 17Illustration of the fossil jaw of the Stonesfield mammal from Gideon Mantell's 1848 Wonders of Geology (from History of paleontology)

Selected article on paleontology in human science, culture and economics

Evolutionary thought, the conception that species change over time, has roots in antiquity. With the beginnings of biological taxonomy in the late 17th century, a new anti-Aristotelian approach to modern science challenged traditional essentialism. Naturalists began to focus on the variability of species; the emergence of paleontology with the concept of extinction further undermined the static view of nature. In the early 19th century, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed the first fully formed theory of evolution.

In 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace published a new evolutionary theory that was explained in detail in Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). Unlike Lamarck, Darwin proposedcommon descent and a branching tree of life. The theory was based on the idea of natural selection, and it synthesized a broad range of evidence from animal husbandry, biogeography, geology, morphology, and embryology.

The debate over Darwin's work led to the rapid acceptance of the general concept of evolution, but the specific mechanism he proposed, natural selection, was not widely accepted until it was revived by developments in biology that occurred during the 1920s through the 1940s. Before that time most biologists argued that other factors were responsible for evolution. The synthesis of natural selection with Mendelian genetics during the 1920s and 1930s founded the new discipline of population genetics. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, population genetics became integrated with other biological fields, resulting in a widely applicable theory of evolution that encompassed much of biology—the modern evolutionary synthesis. (see more...)

On this day...

July 3:

1858 - Charles Schuchert was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.
1874 - Johan Gunnar Andersson was born.
1904 - John Bell Hatcher died of typhoid fever in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, at age 42.
1919 - Irajá Damiani Pinto was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

New Mid-Cretaceous (Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia

Scott A. Hocknull, Matt A. White, Travis R. Tischler, Alex G. Cook, Naomi D. Calleja, Trish Sloan, David A. Elliott

published 03 Jul 2009

More anniversaries...

Selected image

A specimen of copal with insect inclusions. The piece of copal measures around four centimeters deep and the insects are trapped from 0.5 to 2 centimeters deep within it. The bubbles around some of the insects indicate that they were alive and breathing when they were trapped inside.
Photo credit: Brocken Inaglory
Upload credit: Mbz1