Paleontology is the study of past life.
Paleontology is the study of past life. It generally focuses on non-human life. Archeology and Anthropology are the sciences that focus on humans.
Paleontologists study many kinds of evidence, fossils, rocks, chemistry, climate, and modern (living) organisms to give them answers to their questions about not only what kinds of organisms lived in the past, but how they lived, how they evolved, and even why they may have gone extinct. There is an Overview of Paleontology here.
We have exhibits at the museum featuring many fossils, along with a general geologic history of Pinal County.
Our online exhibits feature:
Plant Fossils
Marine Fossils (fossils of animals from the ocean)
What is a fossil? Fossils are evidence of past life.
What kinds of fossils are there?
Natural unchanged body parts is one type. These are still the original bone, they’ve just been buried for a long time. They’re usually called sub-fossils because they are not “true” petrified fossils.
Imprints (molds and casts) are what’s left after the original material (body, bone, feather, etc.) decomposes or is washed away, leaving just an impression of the part. If you push a shell into clay and remove the shell, what you’re left with is an imprint.
Trace fossils (footprints, coprolites) are sometimes like imprints but are more than that. They aren’t what’s left when a hard part of an organism decomposes, but are evidence of behavior. These include footprints (show how an animal moved), coprolites (fossil poop, shows what they ate), and the remains of burrows and nests (show where they lived).
Petrification is literally being “turned to stone.” Most of what people think of as fossils are petrified. This happens when the original body (usually just the bone, shell, or wood) material dissolves away slowly after burial. The original material is slowly washed away by water seeping through the ground. That original material is replaced by minerals the water carries with it leaving behind a stone copy of the body part. If you have seen the white crust that develops around a leaky sink, those are the kinds of minerals that can form the stone copy of the bone, shell, or wood. Some petrified fossils are quite detailed because of the slow dissolving of the original. Some of these types of fossils show cell structure, blood vessels, and in some special cases, even some structures within cells can still be seen.
Biofilms are what’s left when a dead plant or animal comes to rest on a hard surface (usually) and is buried quickly. The animal or plant does not completely decompose, it becomes squashed by the dirt that has buried it. This leaves just a thin film between layers of rock, which is the compressed body. Most often this happens to plant leaves, but some softer-bodied animals like jellies, fish, and insects become fossil films.
What can we learn from fossils?
We can, and have, learned many things from fossils. New technics and new technologies regularly allow us to look at fossils in new ways and find out new things about the life of the past.
Among the things we can learn is how animals and plants lived in the past. What did they eat? Where did they live? What was the environment like when they lived?
We can also learn how animals and plants looked in the past. Did cats have bigger teeth in the past? Did dogs always walk on four legs? Did cactus ever have big leaves? Sometimes we can even learn what color an animal was.
The simplest thing we can learn is what animals and plants lived in the past, and when.
Where are fossils found?
Fossils are almost always found in sedimentary rock. This kind of rock is made up of sand, silt, mud, or similar sediments that have been compressed over time into solid rock.
Sometimes we find fossils embedded in other kinds of rock. Marble, for example, is a metamorphic rock formed when limestone (a sedimentary rock) is partially melted. Sometimes the heat is enough to turn the stone into marble, but not hot enough to melt any fossils that were in the limestone. More rarely we might find trace fossils or imprints in igneous rock where an organism has fallen onto lava that’s cool enough not to burn it quickly, but warm enough to take an impression.
Who studies fossils?
Paleontologists are scientists that study the life of the past including fossils
What do paleontologists do?
There are many kinds of paleontologists who do many different things. You might study dinosaurs, mice, plants, or bacteria. You may work for an oil company, school, or museum.
You may dig up fossils for someone else or only work with fossils someone else digs up for you. You may be an artist or work only with math. You may mostly teach or mostly write books.
There are very few jobs with the title “paleontologist”. You may be called a teacher, curator, author, artist, biologist, geologist, oil explorer, or any number of other job titles.
Becoming a Paleontologist
There are many kinds of paleontologists who do many different things. You might study dinosaurs, mice, plants, or bacteria. You may work for an oil company, school, or museum.
As a paleontologist, you may dig up fossils for someone else or only work with fossils someone else digs up for you. You may be an artist that draws fossils or reconstructs the organisms they come from. You may mostly work with math, making calculations about fossils and other evidence. You might work in chemistry, looking at the make-up of fossil films, or studying the possible nutrition of plants. You may mostly teach or write.
There are very few jobs with the title “paleontologist.” You may be called a teacher, curator, author, artist, biologist, geologist, oil explorer, or any of a number of other job titles.
Because there are so many things a paleontologist might do, it’s difficult to say exactly how to become one. In general, studying math and science in school will help prepare you for a career in paleontology. You’ll need English and history too. In college, you should study geology and biology including comparative anatomy. You may want to go to graduate school and get a Ph.D., or you may be able to do what you want with just a four-year college degree. Today, only rarely do people working in paleontology stop with just a high school diploma.