Editing Paleontology (section)

===Paleobiology===
{{main|Paleobiology}}
[[File:Ice age fauna of northern Spain - Mauricio Antón.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|Restoration of ice age megafauna during the [[Pleistocene]] in northern Spain]]
Paleobiology is the study of the biology of extinct organisms. As a topic it has been around since the beginning it paleontology itself, as fossils are the remains of extinct organisms, but the areas of research covered by paleobiology have changed to capture much more theoretical thinking, studying the biological aspects of paleontology rather than geological topics like stratigraphy. This means there is a particular focus on evolution, adaptation, ecology, function, and behavior in paleobiology, especially of invertebrates which are far more common in the fossil record. Darwin's work on evolution was largely paleobiological in nature, drawing from paleontology, geology and biology, but also pushed paleontology into the background as the incompleteness of the fossil record became a hindrance to advancements in evolution. The first use of "paleobiology" as a word came in [[1893 in paleontology|1893]], but it was the work of [[Othenio Abel]] in the 1910s that established "päleobiologie" as the study of biologically informed paleontology.<ref name="sepkoski2009"/> [[Franz Nopcsa]] is also understood to have been a pioneer of paleobiology, and one of the first paleontologists to use histology and the interpret the paleophysiology of extinct animals.<ref name="weishampel2012"/> Biological questions did not change the field of paleontology greatly until the general transformation of the field in the 1950s and 1960s with new approaches to the fossil record and a differing view on the place of paleontology as a discipline. Paleontology was no longer seen as a subdivision of geology but instead as a field of biology or a field of its own, able to be grounded in theoretical thinking and assessed numerically. Paleontology was suggested to be educated as two separate areas: stratigraphy and paleobiology, with significant overlap and incerconnection. Throughout following decades paleobiology would expand to encompass many theoretical fields related to evolution or extinction, and become a feature of museums and [[universities]] supporting the connection between paleontology and biology.<ref name="sepkoski2009"/>

Many of the fields of paleontology can be seen as part of the study of paleobiology, and paleontologists themselves may be better referred to as paleobiologists. Evolution and paleoecology are large parts of the change towards paleobiology and major areas of study and advancements of the field. Theoretical thinking and analysis of evolution has advanced and improved applications of the fossil record. Studies of taphonomy, evolutionary paleoecology, diversity, behavior, trace fossils, and the paleoenvironment all fall under the breadth of paleoecology.<ref name="kelley2013"/> Paleobiology is able to inform on questions about the life appearances of organisms, their ways of communicating or reproducing, their growth, and how they survived and died out. Effective paleobiology requires knowledge of biological fields (evolution, [[genetics]], [[systematics]], evolutionary developmental biology, biogeography, ecology, [[biochemistry]]), geological fields ([[sedimentology]], stratigraphy, Earth history, isotopes, [[geochemistry]], taphonomy), [[statistics]] and applied math, and often even [[computer science]].<ref name="benton2020-1"/> Findings and studies in biology are relevant and applicable to paleontology, and as a result the findings of paleontology become relevant to biology. The available information to study between the two fields is different, forcing paleontological studies to be more integrated while biological studies are more focused, but this is an opportunity for collaborative work.<ref name="valentine2009"/>