|
CMNH Invertebrate Paleontology: Section History (641 words) |
 | In the past century the discipline of paleontology has grown and evolved from a science of "collect and name" to one that integrates sedimentological, ecological, and evolutionary principles into a cohesive discipline that merges life science and earth history. |
| The history of invertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, its collections, staff, and their backgrounds parallel the history of paleontology. |
| This stage in the development of paleontology might be called "the cataloguing period." Paleontological publications from this period are filled with beautiful illustrations of new species that had been collected from rocks of various ages from around the globe. |
|
Paleontology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (753 words) |
| Paleontology (sometimes spelled palaeontology) is the study of the developing history of life on Earth, including ancient plants and animals, based on their fossil record (evidence of their prehistoric existence as typically preserved in sedimentary rocks). |
| Modern paleontology sets ancient life in its contexts by studying how long-term physical changes of global geography ('paleogeography') and climate ('paleoclimate') have affected the evolution of life, how ecosystems have responded to these changes and have changed the planetary environment in turn and how these mutual responses have affected today's patterns of biodiversity. |
| Paleontology utilizes the same classic binomial nomenclature scheme, devised for the biology of living things by the mid-18th century Swedish biologist Carolus Linnaeus and increasingly sets these species in a genealogical framework, showing their degrees of interrelatedness using the still somewhat controversial technique of 'cladistics'. |
Feeds |
Contact