Editing Paleontology (section)

==Cultural significance==
{{see also|Cultural depictions of dinosaurs}}
[[File:Mantellodon in Crystal Palace Park.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Iguanodon]]'' sculptures in [[Crystal Palace Park]]]]
Paleontology is one of the most high profile of the sciences. Discoveries, especially on dinosaurs and human evolution, are commonly reported in the [[mass media]], with only [[astrophysics]] and global health comparable in the level of press attention. Prehistoric life is drawn as inspiration for [[toys]], television and [[films]], [[computer games]], and attractions in [[tourism]]. Environments and organisms from the deep past are some of the most familiar concepts drawn from modern science, such as the dinosaurs ''[[Tyrannosaurus]]'', ''[[Triceratops]]'' and ''[[Brontosaurus]]'', early humans like the neanderthal and ''[[Homo floresiensis]]'', extinct megafauna like mammoths and [[sabre-toothed cat]]s, and invertebrates like trilobites and ammonites. Paleontology academically is not a particularly profitable field of science; the operational budget of the [[American Museum of Natural History]] in 2021 was [[USD|$]]178 million while the budget of the film ''[[Jurassic World II]]'' was $516.1 million. The influence of paleontology in public consciousness may be due to a number of causes such as the mystery, the immense scale of time and some organisms, or the similarities between myths of [[dragons]] and [[giant]]s and their representation in extinct faunas. Paleontologists will draw from public funding and use appeal to gain sponsorships, but the public aspect also overshadows some portions of the field to the benefit of others. There is an overwhelming focus in paleontology on the study of dinosaurs or specific geographical regions, with the most iconic taxa almost exclusively coming from the late 19th and early 20th excavations in North America. The marketing to children of paleontological items can make the field be regarded as "childish" and undermine the utility of the science in popular consciousness.<ref name="manias2025"/>
[[File:Jurassic Park Entrance Arch at the Universal Islands of Adventure.JPG|thumb|right|Entrance arch to ''Jurassic Park'' at [[Universal Islands of Adventure]]]]
Public perception of paleontology goes back to mythological interpretations of fossils discovery by numerous [[indigenous peoples]] of many continents. [[Traditional Chinese medicine]] made use of Pleistocene mammal fossils as "dragon bones" or "dragon teeth", indigenous peoples of Australia and North America made reference to landforms and fossils, and fossils have been interpreted as [[Nephilim]] mentioned in the Book of Genesis of European and North American Christianity. Early reconstructions of deep time following the foundation of paleontology saw [[paleoart]]istic reconstructions of past ecosystems, including the creation of the [[Crystal Palace Dinosaurs]] sculptures and landscaping in the 1850s under the direction of [[Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins]]. Hawkins would also create the first free-standing skeletal mount of a dinosaur in the 1860s: ''[[Hadrosaurus]]'' at the [[Academy of Natural Sciences]] in [[Philadelphia]]. The [[Bone Wars]] between American paleontologists [[Othniel Charles Marsh]] and [[Edward Drinker Cope]] in the late 19th century engaged with the media at the time, and has since been used as a common popular narrative of paleontology through [[novels]], [[comics]], popular books, and even a [[musical theatre|musical]]. Following Marsh and Cope, a second American dinosaur rush would occur at the start of the 20th century where new museums and institutions aimed to excavate and display the highest-quality dinosaur fossils, accompanied by paleoart, news media, and exchanges with overseas institutions. This exploitation for popular appeal also intertwined paleontology of the time with [[imperialism]], where fossils from Africa, Asia, and South America were excavated and taken by North American and European institutions.<ref name="manias2025"/>

Further public engagement of paleontology has taken the form of fictional novels and films focused on paleontology and dinosaurs, beginning with [[stone-age]] Europeans in stories of the 1890s, but notably with the publication of ''[[The Lost World (Doyle novel)|The Lost World]]'' by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] in [[1912 in paleontology|1912]]. Paleontology would be characterized by many tropes in the following [[The Lost World (1925 film)|film adaptation of the book]] as well as ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'' and ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'' in the 1920s to 1940s. Popular representations of paleontology would decline coinciding with the [[Cold War]], but resurge in the 1970s with numerous popular works such as ''[[The Dinosaur Heresies]]'' by paleontologist [[Robert Bakker]] and papers by [[John Ostrom]] that would reframe dinosaurs as active animals in a time termed the "[[dinosaur renaissance]]". The most significant establishment of paleontology in public would be in the 1990s with the publications of the ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' novel by [[Michael Crichton]] and the subsequent [[Steven Spielberg]] [[Jurassic Park (film)|film]], where the story frames warmings about scientific development and genetic technology. Global expansion of paleontology following has been met with the creation of new institutions globally to study and preserve fossils, but the focus since the ''Jurassic Park'' works has been on dinosaurs. New media have risen to paleontological [[blogging]] and [[podcasts]] and a greater online presence of those in the field. Conjectural forms of paleoart have arisen that engage with new science, and the boundaries between an artist, hobbyist, and professional have blurred. Paleontology has significant amounts of public outreach to drive its engagement and maintain its presence in the public sphere, and this public significance has in turn led to additional resources, recognition, and funding for the science.<ref name="manias2025"/>