Meaning of Paleontology (What is, Concept and Definition)

What is Paleontology:

Paleontology is the natural science through which the past of life on Earth is studied and reconstructed .

It is a science that exposes what life on Earth was like before the appearance of human beings.Scientists obtain information from the collection of fossil traces of living beings such as plants, insects and animals, even taking count soil samples.

The word paleontology derives from the Greek palaios which means 'ancient', onto which translates as 'being', and loggia which means 'science'.

Paleontology is compatible with other scientific and natural studies, mainly with geology and biology, which are responsible for obtaining important information about changes physics of the planet and its effects on living beings.

The objective of studying paleontology is to collect all possible data about how to or was the Earth in the past , in order to reconstruct the origin, evolution and relationship that existed between extinct living beings.

In this sense, paleontology is divided into different branches of study such as paleobiology, paleobiogeography, taphonomy, biochronology, among others.

These studies expose the origin of living beings, their evolutionary changes, phylogeny or kinship relations, their territorial distribution, the causes of death or extinction and fossilization processes of the remains of animals, plants and vegetables.

In this way, the importance of paleontology is because it is a science that makes it possible to understand the biodiversity that exists today , as has been the distribution of living beings and their continuous evolution, the formation of the continents, among others.

It should be mentioned that, paleontology dates back from ancient Greece to the present day, so various study techniques have been developed that complement the information collected throughout history about the origin of life on Earth.

Among the most prominent paleontologists, Georges Cuvier, Charles Darwin, Joseph Leidy, Jack Horner, Ivan can be mentioned Efremov, Lucas Mallada, Mary Anning, Paul Sereno, among others.

See also Fosil.

Branches of paleontology

The main branches of paleontology are Paleobiology, taphonomy and biochronology.These branches of study allow us to understand how climatic and geographical changes have intervened in the distribution and evolution of living things.

Paleobiology

En a branch of paleontology that, together with biology, deals with studying the organisms that existed in the past through their fossil remains.

From fossil paleobiology, fossils are studied of animals, plants and vegetables, fingerprints, distribution of living things, analysis of gene material tico, among others.

Therefore, paleobiology is composed of other specialties such as paleozoology, paleobotany, paleoecology, paleobiogeography, among others.

Taphonomy

It is the branch of paleontology from which the processes that acted and still act in fossilization are studied, as well as fossil sites.This is an indispensable study for subsequent analysis of fossils.

Biochronology

It is the branch of paleontology that studies the chronology of when the already extinct beings lived, and the biotic changes that occurred at that time, from fossil remains.It also allows to determine, approximately, the Biological age of the fossil found.