What does paleontology mean?

Definitions for paleontology
ˌpeɪ li ənˈtɒl ə dʒi; esp. Brit. ˌpæl i-pa·le·on·tol·o·gy

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word paleontology.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. paleontology, palaeontology, fossilologynoun

    the earth science that studies fossil organisms and related remains

Wiktionary

  1. paleontologynoun

    Study of the forms of life existing in prehistoric or geologic times, especially as represented by fossils.

Wikipedia

  1. Paleontology

    Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology). Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term has been used since 1822 formed from Greek παλαιός ('palaios', "old, ancient"), ὄν ('on', (gen. 'ontos'), "being, creature"), and λόγος ('logos', "speech, thought, study").Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of anatomically modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics, and engineering. Use of all these techniques has enabled paleontologists to discover much of the evolutionary history of life, almost all the way back to when Earth became capable of supporting life, nearly 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 and environmental history, such as ancient climates. Body fossils and trace fossils are the principal types of evidence about ancient life, and geochemical 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, 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 puzzles" of biostratigraphy (arrangement of rock layers from youngest to oldest). Classifying ancient organisms is also difficult, as many do not fit well into the Linnaean taxonomy classifying living organisms, and paleontologists more often use cladistics to draw up evolutionary "family trees". The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of molecular phylogenetics, which investigates how closely organisms are related by measuring the similarity of the DNA in their genomes. Molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the molecular clock on which such estimates depend.

ChatGPT

  1. paleontology

    Paleontology is the scientific study of the history of life on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks, burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces, and chemical residues. It helps us understand the Earth's geological and biological history, including the evolution and characteristics of different life forms.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Paleontologynoun

    the science which treats of the ancient life of the earth, or of fossils which are the remains of such life

  2. Etymology: [Paleo- + Gr. 'o`nta existing things + -logy. Cf. Ontology.]

Wikidata

  1. Paleontology

    Paleontology or palaeontology is the scientific study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments. As a "historical science" it attempts to explain causes rather than conduct experiments to observe effects. Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek παλαιός, palaios, i.e. "old, ancient", ὄν, on, i.e. "being, creature" and λόγος, logos, i.e. "speech, thought, study". Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, and shares with archaeology a border that is difficult to define. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics and engineering. Use of all these techniques has enabled paleontologists to discover much of the evolutionary history of life, almost all the way back to when Earth became capable of supporting life, about 3,800 million years ago. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialized sub-divisions, some of which focus on different types of fossil organisms while others study ecology and environmental history, such as ancient climates.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Paleontology

    The study of early forms of life through fossil remains.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of paleontology in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of paleontology in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of paleontology in a Sentence

  1. Andrew Farke:

    One of the Holy Grails of dinosaur paleontology is trying to distinguish male and female dinosaurs, i think this is one of those cases that's quite suggestive. I wouldn't say it's necessarily airtight, but it's fairly suggestive of something going with these animals.

  2. Dean Lomax:

    It is an honor to name a new species, but to name it after somebody with such an important role in helping sculpt the science of paleontology is something I’m very proud of.

  3. Adam Marsh:

    We're just now scraping the surface about nuts-and-bolts paleontology.

  4. Erich Fitzgerald:

    Paleontology is one of the last branches of science where serendipity, where chance events, timing, coincidence plays a most vital role, on that particular day at that particular time, Phil Mullaly was the right man for the job on that beach on the southern coast of Australia.

  5. John Kappelman:

    The way to test between these hypotheses is to collect more fossils, establishing when, exactly, the Eurasian fauna entered Afro-Arabia remains one of the most important questions in paleontology, and West Turkana is one of the only places we know of to find that answer.

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"paleontology." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/paleontology>.

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