Paleontology: what is it studying?

In this article, we will talk about such a science as paleontology - what is it studying, why is it necessary and what is the use of it for the modern world.

Ancient times

Most often, when mentioning the first forms of life on Earth, people come to mind dinosaurs. But the view that they are the most ancient inhabitants of our world, since 65 million years have passed since their disappearance, is mistaken. According to some estimates of scientists, life on the planet originated 3.9 billion years ago, and it is very difficult to realize this figure.

In those periods, the Earth was inhabited mainly by the first bacteria and microorganisms, and much later the first invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles appeared.

Even in ancient Greece, scientists found fossilized remnants of various forms of life, but, of course, their age and origin could not learn anything, and therefore they did not study them purposefully. But already in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, interest in the ancient inhabitants of our world broke out with renewed vigor. And at the beginning of the 19th century the term "paleontology" was proposed. What is she studying and why?

Nowadays

So, according to the official definition, paleontology deals with the study of ancient forms of life that existed in the past geological periods and survived to the present day in the form of petrified remains and their fragments. It is also worth noting that this science reproduces the intermediate links of biological species based on the theory of biological evolution.

The study of fossilized bones, the analysis of traces and other facts of the existence of organisms - all this is included in the sphere of interests of such a science as paleontology. What can research give us? In addition to theoretical knowledge and understanding of the course of evolution, a little. But the fact is that basic humanities do not set themselves the goal of pursuing any material benefit.

Perhaps the most famous part of the objects of study of such a science, thanks to which everyone at least once, but heard about it, is the study of dinosaurs of all kinds and ages. But in practice it is more and more prosaic - their fossils are rare and far from complete, so that even in museums one can see only the reconstruction of skeletons, where the real bones are only a small part.

When answering the question what paleontology is studying, it is worth mentioning the inhabitants of the ancient oceans - various trilobites and others. Their remains have survived quite well in rock deposits and sandstone beds. Well, the most "young" representatives of the historical fauna are mammoths. Due to the permafrost conditions in Siberia, their remains are remarkable for their safety and detail.

Why paleontology is useful?

What can the described science give us and how to apply it in other spheres? The fact is that this discipline, unlike others, can not boast of effective research methods and results that fundamentally affect our life, such as physics, engineering or medicine. But on the basis of knowledge collected on the bit, scientists learn a lot about the history of our world before the appearance of man and fill the intermediate branches of the theory of evolution. For example, using radiocarbon analysis of the remains, you can find out what kind of climate was millions of years ago, from whom birds or other animals originated, and make predictions about how they will change after a few hundred thousand years.

What studies paleontology, in practice, looks like an exciting, but very complex game where it is easy to make mistakes or take what you want for reality, because there are much less materials at the disposal of researchers than we would like.

Excavations

But if the fragments of living organisms are so many years, then why did they not rot in their time? How are they preserved millions of years later, and what is the reason for their rarity?

As already mentioned, paleontology is the science of the ancient forms of life, and they have reached us in the form of fossils. And the whole point is that for their education, appropriate conditions are needed. Most often they are found in sandstone, and this is no accident. Petrification is a special process of mineralization of biological material, when under pressure, in the absence of sufficient air and moisture, the bones or cells of the "victim" are gradually infiltrated with mineral compounds. And in the end, they turn into stone.

This process is very long, and it is often disturbed by some kind of physical interference, therefore, to our days, petrified remains have less than it could have been. In addition, they must first be found, and not always in the form of an ideal whole skeleton. Sometimes scientists-paleontologists spend several months in order to just properly assemble them.

The most promising areas are canyons, canyons, ancient sandstone deposits, when, for example, an earthquake occurs and the animals remain under a multimeter layer of rock.

Branch

In paleontology, there are several main branches: paleozoology and paleobotany. The first studies vertebrates and invertebrates, and the second - the ancient plants and all that is associated with them. And they, in turn, are divided into many sections, of which one can not fail to mention paleoanthropology, which deals with the study of the ancestors of people. So paleontology is the science of once-existing living organisms in general.