A brief HISTORY OF PALEONTOLOGY

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A briefHISTORY OF PALEONTOLOGY

• GEOL 3213

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PRE-1750 PRE-SCIENTIFIC PERIOD

• Aristotle a few hundred years B.C.
• Founder of the science of biology
• Originated the type concept
• Believed in the immutability of species
• Made a crude hierarchical classification of
  organisms
• Wrote about genera and species
• Noahan flood (for some people) accounted for
  fossils
• extinctions
• Dark Ages 5th century to about 14th century
• Scientific explanations of the natural world
  considered unacceptable because of church
  opposition and political power
• "Magical interpretations"
• "Plastic forces
• Devils doings
• Some correct interpretations of fossils and
  strata
• Leonardo Da Vinci

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1750-1850 EARLY SCIENTIFIC PERIOD

• Linne's classification (revolutionized biology
  in mid-1700's)
• Followed Aristotles type concept, improved on
  his hierarchical classification scheme, used
  genus species
• Fossils became recognized correctly more often
  than before
• Practical concepts applications being
  discovered by pioneers
• Principles (Hutton) 1st geol textbook (Lyell)
• Correlation age dating (Wm. Smith others)
• Paleoenvironmental interpretations (dOrbigny
  others)
• Geologic time scale (Sedgwick, Murchison, etc.)
• Earth history ( Historical geology developed,
  many workers)
• Debates controversies
• Evolution versus Catastrophism Special Creation
• Cuvier vs. Lamarck
• Beginnings of paleobotany, vertebrate
  paleontology, invertebrate paleontology,
  micropaleontology, paleoecology
• Descriptive phase dominant

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1850-1900 MIDDLE SCIENTIFIC PERIOD

• Darwin's theory of evolution (early 1850's 1858
  1859) shook biology by its roots. Concept of
  natural selection caused a scientific revolution.
  Not enough fossils known to support him.
• More fossils became better known
• Vertebrate
• Invertebrate
• Microfossils (dating aquifers from well cuttings,
  Vienna, 1877)
• Plants
• 1st paleontology textbook
• Evolution was becoming better documented with
  fossils
• Descriptive phase continued to dominate work
• Generalizations or principles were being
  developed

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1900 to Mid 20th Century

• Genetic theory developed in biology
• From the turn of the century
• Mendel's laws (1865) rediscovered
• Biological interest in fossils increased
• Evolutionary histories of invertebrate fossils
  documented
• Evolutionary concepts evaluated more with
  vertebrate fossils
• Practical applications of paleontology to
  resource exploration
• Micropaleontology matured early in century with
  Foraminifera
• Udden (1911), Augustina College, Illinois,
  correlated aquifers with microfossils
• Udden, Texas Bur. Econ. Geol., used microfossils
  to find Petroleum
• Many other workers followed his lead worldwide
• Faunal descriptions and documenting new species
  still dominant

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Mid-1900's to 2003 MODERN PERIOD

• New more sophisticated practical applications
  of paleontology
• Much more emphasis on principles of paleontology
  (many new textbooks)
• Greater biological interest in fossils
  (Paleobiology)
• Ichnology expanded and developed as a
  subdiscipline
• Paleoecology matured as a subdiscipline
• Greater evolutionary interest in fossils
  (punctuated equilibrium theory of Elldredge
  Gould, cladistic analysis of Hennig)
• Literary explosion
• Micropaleontology diversified (ostracodes,
  diatoms, pollen, dinoflagellates, coccoliths,
  dinoflagellates, etc., not just forams )
• Popular paleontology boomed
• Hobyists collectors, amateurs
• Media sensationalism
• Vertebrate emphasis, especially dinosaurs
• Asteroid impacts and extraterrestrial causes of
  extinctions
• Declining of professional paleontologists -
  inspite of popularity.

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Epilogue CONTEMPORARY PALEONTOLOGY

• 1) Emphasizes less memorization (Really!)
• 2) More general biology, soft anatomy, ecology
  emphasized
• 3) Is more hypothesis, problem solving,
  principles oriented
• 4) Developing more interdisciplinary
  quantitative studies
• 5) Taxonomy still considered fundamental
• Documents diversity and evolution of life, etc...
• Represents
• Evolving concepts of evolutionary pathways
• Reflects guides philosophical approaches to
  classification
• Value of any fossil (in any application)
• Directly proportional to the quality of
  identification, location, age, etc.
• Poorly identified fossils result in inaccurate or
  erroneous applications, conclusions
• 6) Well located fossils (geography
  stratigraphy) important to
• Age-dating correlations
• Paleoecology paleoenvironmental studies
• Evolutionary studies
• Other practical applications

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CONTEMPORARY PALEONTOLOGY

• 7) Three main, interrelated fronts
• Paleobiology evolution
• Paleoenvironments (strata) paleoecology
  (organisms)
• Biostratigraphy (age of fossils enclosing
  strata)
• 8) Interdisciplinary (more in some
  subdisciplines)
• Vertebrate paleontology is more zoological
  (in Bio Depts)
• Paleobotany is more botanical (in Bot or
  Bio Depts)
• Invertebrate paleontology is more geological
  (in Geo Depts)
• Micropaleontology is more geological (in
  Geo Depts)
• Invertebrate and Micropaleontology are more
  applied, need more geological information,
  stress the biology less.
• Biology botany stress nonmarine organisms
• But most fossils are found in marine sedimentary
  rocks, so that there is a strong oceanographic
  orientation

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CONTEMPORARY PALEONTOLOGY

• Examples of multidisciplinary studies
• Geochemical studies of isotopes trace elements
  in skeletons, especially calcareous Foraminifera
• Sophistocated mathematical analysis of fossil
  data
• Multivariate statistics
• Cluster and factor analyses
• Numerical taxonomy replaced by cladistic analysis
• Skeletal mineralogy and microstructures
• Functional morphological studies
• Paleobiogeography and plate tectonics
• Paleoclimatological studies
• Sedimentary basin analysis
• Facies paleoenvironments
• Correlation age determination
• Thermal maturation studies in HC exploration
  (conodonts)

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