
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch
In geochronology, an epoch is a subdivision of the geologic timescale that is longer than an age (geology), age but shorter than a period (geology), period. The current epoch is the Holocene E ...
epoch
In chronology
222px, Joseph Scaliger's ''De emendatione temporum'' (1583) began the modern science of chronology
Chronology (from Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
(roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language
A classical language is a language
A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, inc ...

s to classify
organism
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, physiological me ...

s and study their
interactions with each other and their environments (their
paleoecology
Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescale
The geologic time scale (GTS) is a system of chronological datingCh ...
). Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BCE. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of
Georges Cuvier
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungus, fungi, and plants, in ...

's work on
comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy
Anatomy (Greek ''anatomē'', 'dissection') is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organism
In biology, an organism (from Anc ...
, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from
Greek#REDIRECT Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece
Greece ( el, Ελλάδα, , ), officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country located in Southeast Europe. Its population is approximately 10.7 million as of ...

(, "old, ancient"), (, (
gen. ), "being, creature"), and (, "speech, thought, study").
Paleontology lies on the border between
biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, physiological mechanisms, Development ...

and geology, but differs from
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis
Analysis is the process of breaking a complexity, complex topic or Substance theory, substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better underst ...
in that it excludes the study of
anatomically modern human
Anatomy (Greek ''anatomē'', 'dissection') is the branch of biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, ...
s. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry, is the study of es within and relating to living s. A sub-discipline of both and , biochemistry may be divided into three fields: , and . Over the last decades of the 20th century, biochemistry has beco ...

,
mathematic
Mathematics (from Greek: ) includes the study of such topics as quantity
Quantity is a property that can exist as a multitude or magnitude, which illustrate discontinuity and continuity. Quantities can be compared in terms of "more", " ...
s, and engineering. Use of all these techniques has enabled paleontologists to discover much of the
evolutionary history of life
The history of life on Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbour and support life. 29.2% of Earth's surface is land consisting of continents and islands. The remaining 70.8% is Water ...
, almost all the way back to when Earth became capable of supporting life, almost 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
Ecology (from el, οἶκος, "house" and el, -λογία, label=none, "study of") is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms
In biol ...
and environmental history, such as
ancient climates.
Body fossils and
trace fossil
A trace fossil, also ichnofossil (; from el, ἴχνος ''ikhnos'' "trace, track"), is a fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to ...
s are the principal types of evidence about ancient life, and
geochemical
Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the en ...
evidence has helped to decipher the evolution of life before there were organisms large enough to leave body fossils. Estimating the dates of these remains is essential but difficult: sometimes adjacent rock layers allow
radiometric dating
Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks
In geology
Geology (from the Ancient Greek γῆ, ''gē'' ("earth") and -λoγία, ''-logia'', ("study of", "di ...
, which provides
absolute dates that are accurate to within 0.5%, but more often paleontologists have to rely on relative dating by solving the "
jigsaw puzzle
A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle
Tiling puzzles are puzzles involving two-dimensional packing problems in which a number of flat shapes have to be assembled into a larger given shape without overlaps (and often without gaps). Some tiling p ...
s" of
biostratigraphy
Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy
through Jurassic strata of the Colorado Plateau area of southeastern Utah demonstrate the principles of stratigraphy.
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), roc ...
(arrangement of rock layers from youngest to oldest). Classifying ancient organisms is also difficult, as many do not fit well into the
Linnaean taxonomy
Linnaean taxonomy can mean either of two related concepts:
# the particular form of biological classification
In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying ...
classifying living organisms, and paleontologists more often use
cladistics
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification
In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared ch ...

to draw up evolutionary "family trees". The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of
molecular phylogenetics
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny
A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram
A diagram is a symb ...
, which investigates how closely organisms are related by measuring the similarity of the
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a molecule
File:Pentacene on Ni(111) STM.jpg, A scanning tunneling microscopy image of pentacene molecules, which consist of linear chains of five carbon rings.
A molecule is an electrically neutral gro ...

in their
genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The genome includes both the genes (the coding regions) and the noncodin ...

s. Molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the
molecular clock
The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate
In genetics
Genetics is a branch of biology concerned with the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005)
Thou ...
on which such estimates depend.
Overview
The simplest definition of "paleontology" is "the study of ancient life".
The field seeks information about several aspects of past organisms: "their identity and origin, their environment and evolution, and what they can tell us about the Earth's organic and inorganic past".
Historical science
William Whewell
William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English
English usually refers to:
* English language
English is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language first spoken in History of Anglo-Saxon England, early medieval Eng ...

(1794–1866) classified paleontology as one of the historical sciences, along with
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis
Analysis is the process of breaking a complexity, complex topic or Substance theory, substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better underst ...
, geology,
astronomy
Astronomy (from el, ἀστρονομία, literally meaning the science that studies the laws of the stars) is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and celestial event, phenomena. It uses mathematics, phys ...
,
cosmology
Cosmology (from Greek#REDIRECT Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece
Greece ( el, Ελλάδα, , ), officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country located in Southeast Europe. Its population is approx ...
,
philology
Philology is the study of language
A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, including speech (spoken language), gestures (Signed language, sign language) and writing. Most languages have a writing system composed o ...
and history itself: paleontology aims to describe phenomena of the past and to reconstruct their causes.
Hence it has three main elements: description of past phenomena; developing a general theory about the causes of various types of change; and applying those theories to specific facts.
When trying to explain the past, paleontologists and other historical scientists often construct a set of one or more
hypotheses
A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation
An explanation is a set of statements usually constructed to describe a set of facts which clarifies the causes, context
Context may refer to:
* Context (language use), the rel ...
about the causes and then look for a "
smoking gun
The term "smoking gun" is a reference to an object or fact that serves as conclusive evidence
Evidence, broadly construed, is anything presented in support of an assertion, because evident things are undoubted. There are two kind of evidence: i ...
", a piece of evidence that strongly accords with one hypothesis over any others.
Sometimes researchers discover a "smoking gun" by a fortunate accident during other research. For example, the 1980 discovery by
Luis
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish language, Spanish form of the originally Germanic language, Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese language, Portuguese and G ...
and
Walter Alvarez
Walter Alvarez (born October 3, 1940) is a professor in the Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. About 29% of Earth's surface is land consisting of continent
A conti ...
of
iridium
Iridium is a with the Ir and 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white of the , iridium is considered to be the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after ) with a density of as defined by experimental . It is the most -resistant meta ...

, a mainly extraterrestrial metal, in the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period
A geological period is one of the several subdivisions of geologic time enabling cross-referencing of rocks and geologic events from place to place.
These periods form elements of a hierarchy of division ...

–
Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the Period (geology), geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-bird, avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extincti ...

boundary layer made
asteroid impact
An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or met ...

the most favored explanation for the
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden of three-quarters of the and on , approximately 66 million years ago. With the exception of some species such as ...
– although debate continues about the contribution of volcanism.
A complementary approach to developing scientific knowledge,
experimental science
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support, refute, or validate a hypothesis
A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method
...
,
is often said to work by conducting experiments to ''disprove'' hypotheses about the workings and causes of natural phenomena. This approach cannot prove a hypothesis, since some later experiment may disprove it, but the accumulation of failures to disprove is often compelling evidence in favor. However, when confronted with totally unexpected phenomena, such as the first evidence for invisible
radiation
upThe international symbol for types and levels of ionizing radiation (radioactivity) that are unsafe for unshielded humans. Radiation, in general, exists throughout nature, such as in light and sound.
In physics
Physics (from grc ...

, experimental scientists often use the same approach as historical scientists: construct a set of hypotheses about the causes and then look for a "smoking gun".
Related sciences
Paleontology lies between
biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, physiological mechanisms, Development ...

and geology since it focuses on the record of past life, but its main source of evidence is
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language
A classical language is a language
A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, inc ...

s in rocks. For historical reasons, paleontology is part of the geology department at many universities: in the 19th and early 20th centuries, geology departments found fossil evidence important for dating rocks, while biology departments showed little interest.
Paleontology also has some overlap with
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis
Analysis is the process of breaking a complexity, complex topic or Substance theory, substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better underst ...
, which primarily works with objects made by humans and with human remains, while paleontologists are interested in the characteristics and evolution of humans as a species. When dealing with evidence about humans, archaeologists and paleontologists may work together – for example paleontologists might identify animal or plant fossils around an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history
Human history, also kn ...

, to discover the people who lived there, and what they ate; or they might analyze the climate at the time of habitation.
In addition, paleontology often borrows techniques from other sciences, including biology,
osteology
125px, A human skeleton (endoskeleton)
Osteology, derived from the , is the science, scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure ...
, ecology,
chemistry
Chemistry is the study of the properties and behavior of . It is a that covers the that make up matter to the composed of s, s and s: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and the changes they undergo during a with other .
...

,
physics
Physics is the that studies , its , its and behavior through , and the related entities of and . "Physical science is that department of knowledge which relates to the order of nature, or, in other words, to the regular succession of eve ...

and mathematics.
For example,
geochemical
Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the en ...
signatures from rocks may help to discover when life first arose on Earth,
and analyses of
carbon
Carbon (from la, carbo "coal") is a with the C and 6. It is lic and —making four s available to form s. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon makes up only about 0.025 percent of Earth's crust. Three occur naturally, ...

isotope ratios may help to identify climate changes and even to explain major transitions such as the
Permian–Triassic extinction event
The Permian–Triassic extinction event, also known as the P–Tr extinction, the P–T extinction, the End-Permian Extinction, and colloquially as the Great Dying, formed the boundary between the Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period ...
.
A relatively recent discipline,
molecular phylogenetics
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny
A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram
A diagram is a symb ...
, compares the
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a molecule
File:Pentacene on Ni(111) STM.jpg, A scanning tunneling microscopy image of pentacene molecules, which consist of linear chains of five carbon rings.
A molecule is an electrically neutral gro ...

and
RNA
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymer
A polymer (; Greek ''wikt:poly-, poly-'', "many" + ''wikt:-mer, -mer'', "part")
is a Chemical substance, substance or material consisting of very large molecules, or macromolecules, composed of many Re ...

of modern organisms to re-construct the "family trees" of their evolutionary ancestors. It has also been used to estimate the dates of important evolutionary developments, although this approach is controversial because of doubts about the reliability of the "
molecular clock
The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate
In genetics
Genetics is a branch of biology concerned with the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005)
Thou ...
".
Techniques from engineering have been used to analyse how the bodies of ancient organisms might have worked, for example the running speed and bite strength of ''
Tyrannosaurus
''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosau ...

,''
[
Summary in press releas]
No Olympian: Analysis hints ''Indominus Rex'' ran slowly, if at all
or the flight mechanics of ''Microraptor''.
It is relatively commonplace to study the internal details of fossils using
X-ray microtomography
An X-ray, or X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation
In physics
Physics (from grc, φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), physikḗ (epistḗmē), knowledge of nature, from ''phýsis'' 'nature'), , ...
.
Paleontology, biology, archaeology, and
paleoneurobiology
Paleoneurobiology is the study of brain evolution by analysis of brain endocasts to determine endocranium, endocranial traits and volumes. Considered a subdivision of neuroscience, paleoneurobiology combines techniques from other fields of study i ...
combine to study endocranial casts (endocasts) of species related to humans to clarify the evolution of the human brain.
Paleontology even contributes to
astrobiology
Astrobiology, formerly known as exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field concerned with the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have ...
, the investigation of possible life on other
planet
A planet is an astronomical body orbiting a star or Stellar evolution#Stellar remnants, stellar remnant that is massive enough to be Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and ...

s, by developing models of how life may have arisen and by providing techniques for detecting evidence of life.
Subdivisions
As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised subdivisions.
Vertebrate paleontology
Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin: , literally "obtained by digging") is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once- l ...
concentrates on fossils from the earliest fish to the immediate ancestors of modern
mammal
Mammals (from Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language
A classical language is a language
A language is a structured system of communication
Communication (from Latin ''communicare'', meaning "to share" or "to be i ...
s.
Invertebrate paleontology
Invertebrate paleontology (also spelled invertebrate palaeontology) is sometimes described as invertebrate paleozoology or invertebrate paleobiology.
Whether it is considered to be a subfield of paleontology
Paleontology, also spelled palaeont ...
deals with fossils such as
mollusc
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum
In biology, a phylum (; plural
The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number ...
s,
arthropod
An arthropod (, (gen. ποδός)) is an invertebrate
Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart fr ...
s,
annelid
The annelids (Annelida , from Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken in the area around Rome, known as Latium. Through the p ...
worms and
echinoderm
An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum
In biology, a phylum (; plural
The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of ...
s.
Paleobotany
Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist ...
studies fossil
plants
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to Energy transformation, convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel t ...

,
algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of s. It is a grouping that includes species from multiple distinct s. Included organisms range from , such as '','' and the s, to forms, such as the , a large whi ...

, and fungi.
Palynology
pollen
File:Pollen Tube.svg, Pollen Tube Diagram
Pollen is a powdery substance consisting of pollen grains which are Sporophyte, microsporophytes of spermatophyta, seed plants, which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard ...
, the study of
pollen
Pollen is a powdery substance consisting of pollen grains which are Sporophyte, microsporophytes of spermatophyta, seed plants, which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the ga ...

and
spores
)'', growing on a thinned hybrid black poplar ''(Populus x canadensis)''. The last stage of the moss lifecycle is shown, where the sporophyte
350px, Sporophytes of moss during spring
A sporophyte () is the diploid
Ploidy () is the number ...
produced by land plants and
protist
A protist () is any (that is, an organism whose contain a ) that is not an , , or . While it is likely that protists share a (the ), the exclusion of other eukaryotes means that protists do not form a natural group, or . Therefore, some pro ...
s, straddles paleontology and
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, as it deals with both living and fossil organisms.
Micropaleontology
Micropaleontology (American spelling; spelled micropalaeontology in European usage) is the branch of paleontology ( palaeontology) that studies microfossils, or fossils that require the use of a microscope to see the organism, its morphology and i ...
deals with microscopic fossil organisms of all kinds.
Instead of focusing on individual organisms,
paleoecology
Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescale
The geologic time scale (GTS) is a system of chronological datingCh ...
examines the interactions between different ancient organisms, such as their
food chain
A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web
A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is Consumer-resource sy ...

s, and the two-way interactions with their environments. For example, the development of
oxygenic photosynthesis by bacteria caused the
oxygenation of the atmosphere and hugely increased the productivity and diversity of
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

s.
Together, these led to the evolution of complex
eukaryotic
Eukaryotes () are organism
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interact ...
cells, from which all
multicellular
A multicellular organism is an organism
In biology, an organism () is any organic, life, living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy (biolo ...

organisms are built.
Paleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology (, palaeoclimatology) is the study of s for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of , the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to understand natural variation and the e ...
, although sometimes treated as part of paleoecology,
focuses more on the history of Earth's climate and the mechanisms that have changed it – which have sometimes included
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of Phenotypic trait, traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, ...

ary developments, for example the rapid expansion of land plants in the
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era ( ; from the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece
Greece ( el, Ελλάδα, , ), officially the H ...
period removed more
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula
A chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of s that constitute a particular or molecule, using symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, such as pare ...

from the atmosphere, reducing the
greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet's atmosphere warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be without this atmosphere.
Radiatively active gases (i.e., es) in a planet's atmosphere radi ...

and thus helping to cause an
ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbour and support life. 29.2% of Earth's surface is land consisting of continents an ...

in the
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period
The geologic time scale (GTS) is a system of chronological dating that classifies Geology, geological strata (stratigraphy) in time. It is used by geologists, paleontology, paleontologists, and other ...
period.
Biostratigraphy
Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy
through Jurassic strata of the Colorado Plateau area of southeastern Utah demonstrate the principles of stratigraphy.
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), roc ...
, the use of fossils to work out the chronological order in which rocks were formed, is useful to both paleontologists and geologists.
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geograp ...

studies the spatial distribution of organisms, and is also linked to geology, which explains how Earth's geography has changed over time.
Sources of evidence
Body fossils

Fossils of organisms' bodies are usually the most informative type of evidence. The most common types are wood, bones, and shells.
Fossilisation is a rare event, and most fossils are destroyed by
erosion
In earth science
Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science
Natural science is a branch of science
Science (from the Latin word ''scientia'', meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that Scientific ...

or
metamorphism
Metamorphism is the change of mineral
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs nat ...
before they can be observed. Hence the fossil record is very incomplete, increasingly so further back in time. Despite this, it is often adequate to illustrate the broader patterns of life's history.
[
: Non-technica]
summary
There are also biases in the fossil record: different environments are more favorable to the preservation of different types of organism or parts of organisms.
Further, only the parts of organisms that were already
mineralised are usually preserved, such as the shells of molluscs. Since most animal species are soft-bodied, they decay before they can become fossilised. As a result, although there are 30-plus
phyla of living animals, two-thirds have never been found as fossils.
Occasionally, unusual environments may preserve soft tissues. These
lagerstätte
A Lagerstätte (, from '' Lager'' 'storage, lair' ''wikt:Stätte, Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a Sedimentation, sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preser ...
n allow paleontologists to examine the internal anatomy of animals that in other sediments are represented only by shells, spines, claws, etc. – if they are preserved at all. However, even lagerstätten present an incomplete picture of life at the time. The majority of organisms living at the time are probably not represented because lagerstätten are restricted to a narrow range of environments, e.g. where soft-bodied organisms can be preserved very quickly by events such as mudslides; and the exceptional events that cause quick burial make it difficult to study the normal environments of the animals. The sparseness of the fossil record means that organisms are expected to exist long before and after they are found in the fossil record – this is known as the
Signor–Lipps effect
The Signor–Lipps effect is a paleontological principle proposed by Philip W. Signor and Jere H. Lipps which states that, since the fossil record of organisms is never complete, neither the first nor the last organism in a given taxon will be re ...
.
Trace fossils
Trace fossil
A trace fossil, also ichnofossil (; from el, ἴχνος ''ikhnos'' "trace, track"), is a fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to ...
s consist mainly of tracks and burrows, but also include
coprolite
A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized
A fossil (from Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the ...

s (fossil
feces
Feces ( faeces) is the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the , and has been broken down by bacteria in the . Feces contains a relatively small amount of products such as bacterially altered , and dead epithelial cel ...

) and marks left by feeding.
Trace fossils are particularly significant because they represent a data source that is not limited to animals with easily fossilised hard parts, and they reflect organisms' behaviours. Also many traces date from significantly earlier than the body fossils of animals that are thought to have been capable of making them.
[e.g. ] Whilst exact assignment of trace fossils to their makers is generally impossible, traces may for example provide the earliest physical evidence of the appearance of moderately complex animals (comparable to
earthworm
An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan
A body plan, ''Bauplan'' (German plural ''Baupläne''), or ground plan is a set of morphological features common to man ...

s).
Geochemical observations
Geochemical observations may help to deduce the global level of biological activity at a certain period, or the affinity of certain fossils. For example, geochemical features of rocks may reveal when life first arose on Earth,
and may provide evidence of the presence of
eukaryotic
Eukaryotes () are organism
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interact ...
cells, the type from which all
multicellular
A multicellular organism is an organism
In biology, an organism () is any organic, life, living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy (biolo ...

organisms are built.
Analyses of
carbon
Carbon (from la, carbo "coal") is a with the C and 6. It is lic and —making four s available to form s. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon makes up only about 0.025 percent of Earth's crust. Three occur naturally, ...

isotope ratios may help to explain major transitions such as the
Permian–Triassic extinction event
The Permian–Triassic extinction event, also known as the P–Tr extinction, the P–T extinction, the End-Permian Extinction, and colloquially as the Great Dying, formed the boundary between the Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period ...
.
Classifying ancient organisms

Naming groups of organisms in a way that is clear and widely agreed is important, as some disputes in paleontology have been based just on misunderstandings over names.
Linnaean taxonomy
Linnaean taxonomy can mean either of two related concepts:
# the particular form of biological classification
In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying ...
is commonly used for classifying living organisms, but runs into difficulties when dealing with newly discovered organisms that are significantly different from known ones. For example: it is hard to decide at what level to place a new higher-level grouping, e.g.
genus
Genus /ˈdʒiː.nəs/ (plural genera /ˈdʒen.ər.ə/) is a taxonomic rank
In biological classification
In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying gr ...
or
family
In , family (from la, familia) is a of people related either by (by recognized birth) or (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of families is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideally, families would off ...
or
order
Order or ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Orderliness
Orderliness is associated with other qualities such as cleanliness
Cleanliness is both the abstract state of being clean and free from germs, dirt, trash, or waste, and the habit of achieving a ...
; this is important since the Linnaean rules for naming groups are tied to their levels, and hence if a group is moved to a different level it must be renamed.
Simple example cladogram
Warm-bloodedness evolved somewhere in the
synapsid–mammal transition.
Warm-bloodedness must also have evolved at one of
these points – an example of
convergent evolution
Convergent evolution is the independent evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of Phenotypic trait, traits from parents to their offspring; eithe ...
.
Paleontologists generally use approaches based on
cladistics
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification
In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared ch ...

, a technique for working out the evolutionary "family tree" of a set of organisms.
It works by the logic that, if groups B and C have more similarities to each other than either has to group A, then B and C are more closely related to each other than either is to A. Characters that are compared may be
anatomical
Anatomy (Greek ''anatomē'', 'dissection') is the branch of biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, mo ...

, such as the presence of a
notochord
In anatomy
Anatomy (Greek ''anatomē'', 'dissection') is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organism
In biology, an organism (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ὀργανισμός, ''organismos'') is any in ...
, or
molecular
A scanning tunneling microscopy image of pentacene molecules, which consist of linear chains of five carbon rings.
A molecule is an electrically neutral group of two or more atom
An atom is the smallest unit of ordinary matter
In ...
, by comparing sequences of
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a molecule
File:Pentacene on Ni(111) STM.jpg, A scanning tunneling microscopy image of pentacene molecules, which consist of linear chains of five carbon rings.
A molecule is an electrically neutral gro ...

or
protein
Proteins are large biomolecule
, showing alpha helices, represented by ribbons. This poten was the first to have its suckture solved by X-ray crystallography by Max Perutz and Sir John Cowdery Kendrew in 1958, for which they received a No ...

s. The result of a successful analysis is a hierarchy of clades – groups that share a common ancestor. Ideally the "family tree" has only two branches leading from each node ("junction"), but sometimes there is too little information to achieve this and paleontologists have to make do with junctions that have several branches. The cladistic technique is sometimes fallible, as some features, such as wings or
camera eyes, evolved more than once,
convergently – this must be taken into account in analyses.
Evolutionary developmental biology
Evolutionary developmental biology (informally, evo-devo) is a field of biological research that compares the developmental processes of different organism
In biology, an organism (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ὀργανισμός, ''org ...
, commonly abbreviated to "Evo Devo", also helps paleontologists to produce "family trees", and understand fossils.
For example, the
embryological
Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo
An embryo is the early stage of development of a multicellular organism. In general, in organism
In biology, an organism (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ὀργ ...
development of some modern
brachiopod
Brachiopods (), phylum
In biology, a phylum (; plural
The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a ...
s suggests that brachiopods may be descendants of the
halkieriid
The halkieriids are a group of fossil organisms from the Lower to Middle Cambrian. Their eponymous genus is ''Halkieria'' , which has been found on almost every continent in Lower to Mid Cambrian deposits, forming a large component of the small ...
s, which became extinct in the
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period
A geological period is one of the several subdivisions of geologic time enabling cross-referencing of rocks and geologic events from place to place.
These perio ...
period.
Estimating the dates of organisms
Paleontology seeks to map out how living things have changed through time. A substantial hurdle to this aim is the difficulty of working out how old fossils are. Beds that preserve fossils typically lack the radioactive elements needed for
radiometric dating
Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks
In geology
Geology (from the Ancient Greek γῆ, ''gē'' ("earth") and -λoγία, ''-logia'', ("study of", "di ...
. This technique is our only means of giving rocks greater than about 50 million years old an absolute age, and can be accurate to within 0.5% or better.
Although radiometric dating requires very careful laboratory work, its basic principle is simple: the rates at which various radioactive elements
are known, and so the ratio of the radioactive element to the element into which it decays shows how long ago the radioactive element was incorporated into the rock. Radioactive elements are common only in rocks with a volcanic origin, and so the only fossil-bearing rocks that can be dated radiometrically are a few volcanic ash layers.
Consequently, paleontologists must usually rely on
stratigraphy
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks.
Stratigrap ...

to date fossils. Stratigraphy is the science of deciphering the "layer-cake" that is the
sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering
Weathering is the deterioration of rocks
A rock is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is cate ...

ary record, and has been compared to a
jigsaw puzzle
A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle
Tiling puzzles are puzzles involving two-dimensional packing problems in which a number of flat shapes have to be assembled into a larger given shape without overlaps (and often without gaps). Some tiling p ...
. Rocks normally form relatively horizontal layers, with each layer younger than the one underneath it. If a fossil is found between two layers whose ages are known, the fossil's age must lie between the two known ages. Because rock sequences are not continuous, but may be broken up by
faults or periods of
erosion
In earth science
Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science
Natural science is a branch of science
Science (from the Latin word ''scientia'', meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that Scientific ...

, it is very difficult to match up rock beds that are not directly next to one another. However, fossils of species that survived for a relatively short time can be used to link up isolated rocks: this technique is called ''biostratigraphy''. For instance, the conodont ''Eoplacognathus pseudoplanus'' has a short range in the Middle Ordovician period. If rocks of unknown age are found to have traces of ''E. pseudoplanus'', they must have a mid-Ordovician age. Such
index fossil
Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock Stratum, strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. “Biostratigraphy.” ''Oxford Reference: Dictionary ...
s must be distinctive, be globally distributed and have a short time range to be useful. However, misleading results are produced if the index fossils turn out to have longer fossil ranges than first thought.
Stratigraphy and biostratigraphy can in general provide only relative dating (''A'' was before ''B''), which is often sufficient for studying evolution. However, this is difficult for some time periods, because of the problems involved in matching up rocks of the same age across different
continent
A continent is any of several large landmass
A landmass, or land mass, is a large region
In geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia'', literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of th ...

s.
Family-tree relationships may also help to narrow down the date when lineages first appeared. For instance, if fossils of B or C date to X million years ago and the calculated "family tree" says A was an ancestor of B and C, then A must have evolved more than X million years ago.
It is also possible to estimate how long ago two living clades diverged – i.e. approximately how long ago their last common ancestor must have lived – by assuming that DNA
mutation
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, physiological mechan ...
s accumulate at a constant rate. These "
molecular clock
The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate
In genetics
Genetics is a branch of biology concerned with the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005)
Thou ...
s", however, are fallible, and provide only a very approximate timing: for example, they are not sufficiently precise and reliable for estimating when the groups that feature in the
Cambrian explosion first evolved, and estimates produced by different techniques may vary by a factor of two.
History of life

Earth formed about and, after a collision that formed the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. At about one-quarter the diameter of Earth (comparable to the width of Australia (continent), Australia), it is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its plane ...

about 40 million years later, may have cooled quickly enough to have oceans and an atmosphere about . There is evidence on the Moon of a
Late Heavy Bombardment
The Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), or lunar cataclysm, is a hypothesized event thought to have occurred approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion year
A year is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in Earth's orbit, ...
by asteroids from . If, as seems likely, such a bombardment struck Earth at the same time, the first atmosphere and oceans may have been stripped away.
Paleontology traces the evolutionary history of life back to over , possibly as far as .
The oldest clear evidence of life on Earth dates to , although there have been reports, often disputed, of
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language
A classical language is a language
A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, inc ...

bacteria from and of geochemical evidence for the presence of life .
Some scientists have proposed that life on Earth was
"seeded" from elsewhere, but most research concentrates on various explanations of how life could have
arisen independently on Earth.
For about 2,000 million years
microbial mat
The cyanobacterial algal mat, salty lake on the White Sea">algal_mat.html" ;"title="cyanobacterial algal mat">cyanobacterial algal mat, salty lake on the White Sea seaside
A microbial mat is a multi-layered sheet of microorganisms, mainly bacteria ...
s, multi-layered colonies of different bacteria, were the dominant life on Earth.
The evolution of
oxygenic photosynthesis enabled them to play the major role in the
oxygenation of the atmosphere from about . This change in the atmosphere increased their effectiveness as nurseries of evolution.
While
eukaryote
Eukaryotes () are organism
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interact ...

s, cells with complex internal structures, may have been present earlier, their evolution speeded up when they acquired the ability to transform oxygen from a
poison
In biology, poisons are Chemical substance, substances that can cause death, injury or harm to organs, Tissue (biology), tissues, Cell (biology), cells, and DNA usually by chemical reactions or other activity (chemistry), activity on the molecul ...

to a powerful source of
metabolic
Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining ...

energy. This innovation may have come from primitive eukaryotes capturing oxygen-powered bacteria as
endosymbiont
An endosymbiont or endobiont is any organism
In biology, an organism () is any organic, life, living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonom ...
s and transforming them into
organelle
In cell biology
Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, ...
s called
mitochondria
A mitochondrion (; ) is a double-membrane
Image:Schematic size.jpg, up150px, Schematic of size-based membrane exclusion
A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but stops others. Such things may be molecules, i ...

.
The earliest evidence of complex eukaryotes with organelles (such as mitochondria) dates from .
Multicellular
A multicellular organism is an organism
In biology, an organism () is any organic, life, living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy (biolo ...

life is composed only of eukaryotic cells, and the earliest evidence for it is the
Francevillian Group Fossils from ,
although specialisation of cells for different functions first appears between (a possible fungus) and (a probable
red alga
Red algae, or Rhodophyta ( , ; ), are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic
Eukaryotes () are organism
In biology, an organism (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ὀργανισμός, ''organismos'') is any individual contiguous system t ...
).
Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction
Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process
Biological processes are those processes that are vital for an organism
In biology, an organism (from Ancient Greek, ...
may be a prerequisite for specialisation of cells, as an asexual multicellular organism might be at risk of being taken over by rogue cells that retain the ability to reproduce.
The earliest known animals are
cnidaria
Pacific sea nettles, ''Chrysaora fuscescens''
Cnidaria () is a phylum
In biology, a phylum (; plural
The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, ...

ns from about , but these are so modern-looking that must be descendants of earlier animals. Early fossils of animals are rare because they had not developed
mineralised, easily fossilized hard parts until about .
The earliest modern-looking
bilateria
The Bilateria or bilaterians are animal
Animals (also called Metazoa) are multicellular eukaryotic organisms that form the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material ...
n animals appear in the Early
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period
A geological period is one of the several subdivisions of geologic time enabling cross-referencing of rocks and geologic events from place to place.
These perio ...
, along with several "weird wonders" that bear little obvious resemblance to any modern animals. There is a long-running debate about whether this
Cambrian explosion was truly a very rapid period of evolutionary experimentation; alternative views are that modern-looking animals began evolving earlier but fossils of their precursors have not yet been found, or that the "weird wonders" are
evolutionary "aunts" and "cousins" of modern groups.
Vertebrates
Vertebrates () comprise all species of animal
Animals (also called Metazoa) are multicellular eukaryotic organisms that form the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic ma ...

remained a minor group until the first jawed fish appeared in the Late
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period
A geological period is one of the several subdivisions of geologic time enabling cross-referencing of rocks and geologic events from place to place.
These periods form elements of a hierarchy of divisions i ...

.

The spread of animals and plants from water to land required organisms to solve several problems, including protection against drying out and supporting themselves against
gravity
Gravity (), or gravitation, is a by which all things with or —including s, s, , and even —are attracted to (or ''gravitate'' toward) one another. , gravity gives to s, and the causes the s of the oceans. The gravitational attracti ...

.
The earliest evidence of land plants and land invertebrates date back to about and respectively.
Those invertebrates, as indicated by their trace and body fossils, were shown to be arthropods known as
euthycarcinoids. The lineage that produced land vertebrates evolved later but very rapidly between and ; recent discoveries have overturned earlier ideas about the history and driving forces behind their evolution.
Land plants were so successful that their detritus caused an
ecological crisis
An ecological crisis occurs when changes to the environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors alon ...
in the Late
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era ( ; from the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece
Greece ( el, Ελλάδα, , ), officially the H ...
, until the evolution of fungi that could digest dead wood.

During the
Permian
The Permian ( ) is a and which spans 47 million years from the end of the Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Period 251.902 Mya. It is the last period of the Era; the following Triassic Period belongs to the Era. The c ...
period,
synapsid
Synapsids are a group of animals that includes mammals and every animal more closely related to mammals than to the other members of the amniote clade, such as reptiles and birds. Unlike other amniotes, they have a Skull#Fenestrae, temporal fenes ...

s, including the ancestors of
mammal
Mammals (from Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language
A classical language is a language
A language is a structured system of communication
Communication (from Latin ''communicare'', meaning "to share" or "to be i ...
s, may have dominated land environments, but this ended with the
Permian–Triassic extinction event
The Permian–Triassic extinction event, also known as the P–Tr extinction, the P–T extinction, the End-Permian Extinction, and colloquially as the Great Dying, formed the boundary between the Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period ...
, which came very close to wiping out all complex life. The extinctions were apparently fairly sudden, at least among vertebrates. During the slow recovery from this catastrophe a previously obscure group,
archosaur
Archosauria ("ruling reptiles") is a clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organism
In biology, an organism () is any organic, life, living system that functions as an individual entity. ...
s, became the most abundant and diverse terrestrial vertebrates. One archosaur group, the dinosaurs, were the dominant land vertebrates for the rest of the
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles and the Age of Conifers, is the second-to-last era
An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy ...
, and birds evolved from one group of dinosaurs.
During this time mammals' ancestors survived only as small, mainly nocturnal
insectivore
A robber fly eating a _.html" ;"title="hoverfly ">hoverfly
File:Myresluger2.jpg">The giant anteater, a large insectivorous mammal
An insectivore is a Carnivore, carnivorous plant or animal that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage ...
s, which may have accelerated the development of mammalian traits such as
endothermy
An endotherm (from Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece
Greece ( el, Ελλάδα, , ), officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country located in Southeast Europe. Its population is approximately 10.7 mil ...
and hair.
After the
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden of three-quarters of the and on , approximately 66 million years ago. With the exception of some species such as ...
killed off all the dinosaurs except the birds, mammals increased rapidly in size and diversity, and some took to the air and the sea.
Fossil evidence indicates that flowering plants appeared and rapidly diversified in the Early
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period
A geological period is one of the several subdivisions of geologic time enabling cross-referencing of rocks and geologic events from place to place.
These periods form elements of a hierarchy of division ...

between and .
Their rapid rise to dominance of terrestrial ecosystems is thought to have been propelled by coevolution with pollination, pollinating insects.
Social insects appeared around the same time and, although they account for only small parts of the insect "family tree", now form over 50% of the total mass of all insects.
Humans evolved from a lineage of upright-walking apes whose earliest fossils date from over . Although early members of this lineage had Common chimpanzee, chimp-sized brains, about 25% as big as modern humans', there are signs of a steady increase in brain size after about . There is a long-running debate about whether ''modern'' humans are descendants of a Recent African origin of modern humans, single small population in Africa, which then migrated all over the world less than 200,000 years ago and replaced previous hominine species, or Multiregional origin of modern humans, arose worldwide at the same time as a result of interbreeding.
Mass extinctions
Life on earth has suffered occasional mass extinctions at least since . Despite their disastrous effects, mass extinctions have sometimes accelerated the evolution of life on earth. When dominance of an ecological niche passes from one group of organisms to another, this is rarely because the new dominant group outcompetes the old, but usually because an extinction event allows new group to outlive the old and move into its niche.
The fossil record appears to show that the rate of extinction is slowing down, with both the gaps between mass extinctions becoming longer and the average and background rates of extinction decreasing. However, it is not certain whether the actual rate of extinction has altered, since both of these observations could be explained in several ways:
* The oceans may have become more hospitable to life over the last 500 million years and less vulnerable to mass extinctions: dissolved oxygen became more widespread and penetrated to greater depths; the development of life on land reduced the run-off of nutrients and hence the risk of eutrophication and anoxic events; marine ecosystems became more diversified so that
food chain
A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web
A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is Consumer-resource sy ...

s were less likely to be disrupted.
* Reasonably complete
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language
A classical language is a language
A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, inc ...

s are very rare: most extinct organisms are represented only by partial fossils, and complete fossils are rarest in the oldest rocks. So paleontologists have mistakenly assigned parts of the same organism to different genus, genera, which were often defined solely to accommodate these finds – the story of ''Anomalocaris'' is an example of this.
The risk of this mistake is higher for older fossils because these are often unlike parts of any living organism. Many "superfluous" genera are represented by fragments that are not found again, and these "superfluous" genera are interpreted as becoming extinct very quickly.
Biodiversity in the fossil record, which is
:: "the number of distinct genera alive at any given time; that is, those whose first occurrence predates and whose last occurrence postdates that time"
shows a different trend: a fairly swift rise from , a slight decline from , in which the devastating
Permian–Triassic extinction event
The Permian–Triassic extinction event, also known as the P–Tr extinction, the P–T extinction, the End-Permian Extinction, and colloquially as the Great Dying, formed the boundary between the Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period ...
is an important factor, and a swift rise from to the present.
History

Although paleontology became established around 1800, earlier thinkers had noticed aspects of the
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language
A classical language is a language
A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, inc ...

record. The ancient Greek Philosophy#Ancient philosophy, philosopher Xenophanes (570–480 BCE) concluded from fossil sea shells that some areas of land were once under water.
During the Middle Ages the Persian naturalist Avicenna, Ibn Sina, known as ''Avicenna'' in Europe, discussed fossils and proposed a theory of petrifying fluids on which Albert of Saxony (philosopher), Albert of Saxony elaborated in the 14th century.
The Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) proposed a theory of climate change based on the presence of petrified bamboo in regions that in his time were too dry for bamboo.
In early modern Europe, the systematic study of fossils emerged as an integral part of the changes in natural philosophy that occurred during the Age of Enlightenment, Age of Reason. In the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci made various significant contributions to the field as well depicted numerous fossils. Leonardo's contributions are central to the history of paleontology because he established a line of continuity between the two main branches of paleontologyichnology and body fossil paleontology.
[Baucon, A. (2010). "Leonardo da Vinci, the founding father of ichnology". ''Palaios'' 25. Abstract available from th]
author's webpage
/ref> He identified the following:
# The biogenic nature of ichnofossils, i.e. ichnofossils were structures left by living organisms;
# The utility of ichnofossils as paleoenvironmental toolscertain ichnofossils show the marine origin of rock strata;
# The importance of the neoichnological approachrecent traces are a key to understanding ichnofossils;
# The independence and complementary evidence of ichnofossils and body fossilsichnofossils are distinct from body fossils, but can be integrated with body fossils to provide paleontological information
At the end of the 18th century Georges Cuvier
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungus, fungi, and plants, in ...

's work established comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy
Anatomy (Greek ''anatomē'', 'dissection') is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organism
In biology, an organism (from Anc ...
as a scientific discipline and, by proving that some fossil animals resembled no living ones, demonstrated that animals could become extinction, extinct, leading to the emergence of paleontology. The expanding knowledge of the fossil record also played an increasing role in the development of geology, particularly stratigraphy
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks.
Stratigrap ...

.
The first half of the 19th century saw geological and paleontological activity become increasingly well organised with the growth of geologic societies and museums and an increasing number of professional geologists and fossil specialists. Interest increased for reasons that were not purely scientific, as geology and paleontology helped industrialists to find and exploit natural resources such as coal.
This contributed to a rapid increase in knowledge about the history of life on Earth and to progress in the definition of the geologic time scale, largely based on fossil evidence. In 1822 Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, editor of ''Journal de Physique'', coined the word "palaeontology" to refer to the study of ancient living organisms through fossils. As knowledge of life's history continued to improve, it became increasingly obvious that there had been some kind of successive order to the development of life. This encouraged early evolutionary theories on the transmutation of species.
After Charles Darwin published ''Origin of Species'' in 1859, much of the focus of paleontology shifted to understanding evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of Phenotypic trait, traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, ...

ary paths, including human evolution, and evolutionary theory.
The last half of the 19th century saw a tremendous expansion in paleontological activity, especially in North America. The trend continued in the 20th century with additional regions of the Earth being opened to systematic fossil collection. Fossils found in China near the end of the 20th century have been particularly important as they have provided new information about the earliest evolution of animals, early fish, dinosaurs and the evolution of birds. The last few decades of the 20th century saw a renewed interest in mass extinctions and their role in the evolution of life on Earth. There was also a renewed interest in the Cambrian explosion that apparently saw the development of the body plans of most animal phyla. The discovery of fossils of the Ediacaran biota and developments in paleobiology extended knowledge about the history of life back far before the Cambrian.
Increasing awareness of Gregor Mendel's pioneering work in genetics led first to the development of population genetics and then in the mid-20th century to the Modern synthesis (20th century), modern evolutionary synthesis, which explains evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of Phenotypic trait, traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, ...

as the outcome of events such as mutation
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, physiological mechan ...
s and horizontal gene transfer, which provide genetic variation, with genetic drift and natural selection driving changes in this variation over time. Within the next few years the role and operation of DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a molecule
File:Pentacene on Ni(111) STM.jpg, A scanning tunneling microscopy image of pentacene molecules, which consist of linear chains of five carbon rings.
A molecule is an electrically neutral gro ...

in genetic inheritance were discovered, leading to what is now known as the central dogma of molecular biology, "Central Dogma" of molecular biology. In the 1960s molecular phylogenetics
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny
A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram
A diagram is a symb ...
, the investigation of evolutionary "family trees" by techniques derived from biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry, is the study of es within and relating to living s. A sub-discipline of both and , biochemistry may be divided into three fields: , and . Over the last decades of the 20th century, biochemistry has beco ...

, began to make an impact, particularly when it was proposed that the human lineage had diverged from apes much more recently than was generally thought at the time. Although this early study compared protein
Proteins are large biomolecule
, showing alpha helices, represented by ribbons. This poten was the first to have its suckture solved by X-ray crystallography by Max Perutz and Sir John Cowdery Kendrew in 1958, for which they received a No ...

s from apes and humans, most molecular phylogenetics research is now based on comparisons of RNA
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymer
A polymer (; Greek ''wikt:poly-, poly-'', "many" + ''wikt:-mer, -mer'', "part")
is a Chemical substance, substance or material consisting of very large molecules, or macromolecules, composed of many Re ...

and DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a molecule
File:Pentacene on Ni(111) STM.jpg, A scanning tunneling microscopy image of pentacene molecules, which consist of linear chains of five carbon rings.
A molecule is an electrically neutral gro ...

.
See also
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* (''with link directory'')
* List of notable fossils
* List of paleontologists
* List of transitional fossils
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* ''Une Femme ou Deux'' - Cinema of France, French screwball comedy romance film starring Gérard Depardieu as a paleontologist.
References
External links
Smithsonian's Paleobiology website
University of California Museum of Paleontology
The Paleontological Society
The Palaeontological Association
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
The Paleontology Portal
"Geology, Paleontology & Theories of the Earth"
a collection of more than 100 digitised landmark and early books on Earth sciences at the Linda Hall Library
{{Good article
Paleontology,
Earth sciences
Evolutionary biology
Fossils, *
Historical geology