Geological and Environmental Sustainability

Paleontology

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Paleontology is the science that deals with the fossils of animals and plants through their fossilized remains. It is the study of what fossils tell us about the ecologies of the past, about evolution, and about our place, as humans, in the world. Paleontology incorporates knowledge from biology, geology, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, and even computer science to understand the processes that have led to the origination and eventual destruction of the different types of organisms since life arose.

Paleontologists study the fossilized remains of life, including vertebrate organisms such as fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and dinosaurs (vertebrate paleontology); invertebrate organisms such as ancient snails, clams, ammonites, foraminifera, and arthropods under invertebrate paleontology and preserved plants such as leaf impressions and petrified wood The field of bimolecular paleontology covers a broad spectrum of subjects, including exceptional preservation, paleodiet and the food web or trophic levels, paleoclimate, physiology and growth.