Page 14 - Introduction to Paleobiology and The Fossil Record

Chapter 1

Paleontology as a science

Key points

• The key value of paleontology has been to show us the history of life through deep time
– without fossils this would be largely hidden from us.
• Paleontology has strong relevance today in understanding our origins, other distant
worlds, climate and biodiversity change, the shape and tempo of evolution, and dating
rocks.
• Paleontology is a part of the natural sciences, and a key aim is to reconstruct ancient
life.
• Reconstructions of ancient life have been rejected as pure speculation by some, but
careful consideration shows that they too are testable hypotheses and can be as scientifi c
as any other attempt to understand the world.
• Science consists of testing hypotheses, not in general by limiting itself to absolute cer-
tainties like mathematics.
• Classical and medieval views about fossils were often magical and mystical.
• Observations in the 16th and 17th centuries showed that fossils were the remains of
ancient plants and animals.
• By 1800, many scientists accepted the idea of extinction.
• By 1830, most geologists accepted that the Earth was very old.
• By 1840, the major divisions of deep time, the stratigraphic record, had been established
by the use of fossils.
• By 1840, it was seen that fossils showed direction in the history of life, and by 1860
this had been explained by evolution.

• Research in paleontology has many facets, including finding new fossils and using quan-
titative methods to answer questions about paleobiology, paleogeography, macroevolu-
tion, the tree of life and deep time.

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937), Nobel prize-winner