Editing Paleontology (section)

==History==
{{main|History of paleontology}}
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|image4=Carcharocles megalodon (Agassiz, 1843) 3.jpg
|footer=Fossil shells debated to be organic or inorganic in origin (clockwise from top left): [[ammonites]], [[belemnitida|belemnites]], [[shark]] teeth, and [[bivalves]]
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Cuvier is generally regarded as the first paleontologist, and the origins of paleontology as a science trace their origins directly to his demonstrations that fossils in stone were traces of organisms that were once alive but had gone extinct. Despite this, he was far from the first to write about fossils or make observations about things found in rock.<ref name="hall2002"/> Isolated comments from writers about fossils can be found going back to [[classical antiquity]]. The [[philosopher]] [[Xenophanes]] (6th century BCE) believed fossil shells represented life from the past, whereas Aristotle instead explained fossils as "vaporous exhalations". Aristotle's belief was later refined into the theory of a petrifying liquid by Arabic philosopher [[Avicenna]] and German philosopher [[Albert of Saxony (philosopher)|Albert of Saxony]] in the [[middle ages]].<ref name="rudwick1972b"/> Chinese naturalist [[Shen Kuo]] also proposed a theory of [[climate change]] around this time based on the presence of [[petrified]] [[bamboo]] in regions that in his time were too dry for bamboo.<ref name="needham1986"/> In unpublished notebooks, the Italian [[polymath]] [[Leonardo da Vinci]] justified an organic origin for the fossil shells available to him. His notes show observations of living mollusks and their ecology, the processes of [[sedimentation]], and the recognition that the fossil shells had similar features, showed similar [[ontogeny|growth stages]], and had similar pathologies to living mollusks. Da Vinci's study of sedimentation meant he understood why fossils were usually embedded in rocks, and his notes demonstrate a very modern interpretation of the origin of fossils. He rejected the Aristotelian theory of vapors and also did not believe that the Biblical Flood was the primary cause of fossil formation. Da Vinci's notebooks may have inspired others of the time to accept a biologic origin of fossils, but this belief was not accepted by everyone.<ref name="rudwick1972b"/> In addition to his study of body fossils, da Vinci is also credited as the founder of the field of [[ichnology]], which is primarily concerned with [[trace fossils]] and how they can provide insights into the behavior of extinct organisms.<ref name="baucon2011"/>

In the 17th century, naturalists like the Danish scientist [[Nicolas Steno]] and the English polymath [[Robert Hooke]] provided further discussions on the origins of fossils. The general belief was that fossils were of organic origin, but that they had been fossilized by petrifying liquids and moved into elevation by the Biblical Flood or some other means. Conversely, the English physician [[Martin Lister]] completely rejected the possibility of organic fossil origins. The fossils available to Steno, da Vinci, and others mentioned above were primarily the easily-identifiable shells of marine animals, and their organic origin was a relatively straightforward inference. The fossils in England were from rocks dating to the [[Jurassic]] or [[Carboniferous]] and came from a variety of different organisms that bore no clear resemblance to modern organisms. Many explanations were suggested for the posible inorganic or organic origins of fossils, how they came to be lithified, and how they ended up far above the sea, but the ideas of extinction and deep time had not yet been developed, so an explanation eluded naturalists of the time.<ref name="rudwick1972b"/>
[[File:Anoplotherium 1812 Skeleton Sketch.jpg|thumb|right|Cuvier's 1812 unpublished illustration of the extinct mammal ''[[Anoplotherium]]'']]
A significant moment in the history of paleontology was the publication of the [[1796 in paleontology|1796]] paper ''On the species of living and fossil elephants'' by Georges Cuvier, which contained detailed evidence for extinction. Cuvier named the fossil taxon ''[[Megatherium]]'', based on bones found in [[Paraguay]]. The large size of these bones made it unlikely that they were from an extant, but undiscovered, animal. Cuvier reached a similar conclusion regarding the fossils named the [[mastodon]], with the uniqueness of these animals demonstrating that they belonged to species that were no longer alive and thus extinct. To further justify this conclusion, Cuvier extensively studied the fossils of [[elephants]] and prove the distinction of [[mammoths]] from [[Siberia]] and Europe from their living relatives. Presenting this work on the extinction of the [[megafauna]], Cuvier termed the events that led to their disappearance "revolutions", contrasting with the idea of gradual change in the environment and the fauna within it. Of the three possibilities leading to the disappearance, Cuvier supported extinction over migration as well as over evolution as suggested by Lamarck, with his view that extinction and evolution were conflicting explanations. Cuvier also studied the comparative anatomy of both living and fossil organisms and developed a way to assess their morphological characters, which opened the door for developing an understanding of the animals of the past.<ref name="rudwick1972c"/>

Developments in the fields of stratigraphy and paleontology following the work of Cuvier became widespread throughout Europe, and the [[taxonomy|classification]] of extinct organisms into different groups that included their living relatives also proliferated. While most of Cuvier's early studies had been on mammals, there were some fossils with no close living analogues such as the bird-like fossil reptile he called the ''[[Pterodactylus|Ptero-dactyle]]'' or the fish-like marine reptiles that were eventually named [[ichthyosaur]]s.<ref name="rudwick1972c"/> It was in [[1822 in paleontology|1822]] that [[Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville]], a former student of Cuvier, introduced the name ''paléontologie'' for the study of these ancient beings. He had earlier introduced the names ''paléozoologie'' and ''paléosomiologie'' for the studies of fossil animals and fossils in general, respectively, but the latter did not see widespread use and paleontology was the name generally adopted for the field by naturalists of the time.<ref name="rudwick2008-4"/> Some of the most significant discoveries of this early time in paleontology were made by [[Mary Anning]] and her family, who uncovered skeletons from a variety of marine reptiles and other animals in the [[Lyme Regis]] region including ''[[Ichthyosaurus]]'' and ''[[Plesiosaurus]]''. These animals were geologically older than the mammals of Cuvier's earlier work, and this relative age became the study of stratigraphy which enabled scientists to date and order animals relative to one another in geologic time.<ref name="rudwick2008-2"/> The works of Cuvier and Lamarck on extinction and the history of life, and the works of Lyell and English geologist [[Adam Sedgwick]] on geology, were all synthesized by Charles Darwin in his seminal works on the theory of evolution. He suggested that the history of life was full of gradual changes, with the constant presence of extinction acting as the driver evolution through natural selection. This was validated by multiple discoveries soon after Darwin began publishing. The discovery of the [[theropods]] ''[[Compsognathus]]'' and ''[[Archaeopteryx]]'' demonstrated evidence for the progressive evolution of birds from other reptiles, which shifted paleontological study in the direction of studying the evolution of life.<ref name="rudwick1972-5"/>
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|footer=Skeleton of ''[[Archaeopteryx]]'' (left) and display of the sea of the [[Ediacaran biota]] (right)
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For a time paleontology was considered a sub-discipline of geology with relatively little study given to the biological aspects of the field, and paleontology was generally not treated as an important field of study of either science. Over the subsequent decades, geology and biology advanced to theory-based analysis while paleontology lagged behind as a field focused primarily on stratigraphy. This changed with the development of paleobiology in the second half of the [[List of years in paleontology|20th century]]. This shift was driven by conceptual changes in the study of evolution and [[phylogenetics]] and the emergence of new ways to study geology through biostratigraphy, [[paleobiogeography]], [[taphonomy]] and [[paleoclimatology]]. Phylogenetics were developed as a way to quantitatively analyze and interpret the evolution and relationships of organisms, providing context and predictability for evolutionary processes and the impacts of mass extinctions and their recoveries. [[Paleoecology]] itself has seen the emergence of subdisciplines including the field of taphonomy to study the nature of the fossil record. Emphasis was also given to the analysis of diversity and the distribution of taxa, the study of trace fossils, the understanding of [[paleoenvironment]]s, and [[conservation paleobiology]]. Advancements in technology and the analytical tools of other sciences have also been integrated into paleontology including [[geochemical]] analysis, [[molecular biology]], and other computer-aided visualization or analysis techniques.<ref name="kelley2013"/>

The heyday of paleontology was arguably in the [[Victorian era]], with little substantial change since beyond the notable discoveries of new taxa. These on their own have done little to change our overall understanding of the history of life. However, the history of life is not just the story of evolutionary changes, and paleontology has increasingly broadened to include a wider variety of scientific questions. The sizes of the largest dinosaurs, [[pterosaurs]], or [[arthropods]] pose interesting questions to study in the fields of [[biomechanics]], [[ontogeny]], and physiology. Diversification and mass extinction can be predicted and better understood from the studies of phylogenetics, and as technologies and precision improve, the depth to which we understand life of the past will increase.<ref name="benton2009"/>