About a Paleontology degree
About
Paleontology is the study of the past evolution of life, from its early beginnings, through thriving times and mass extinctions, until the present day.
Paleontology could be expected at first to be associated only with biological sciences, and what might have been true in the past, could not be more wrong now! Paleontologist today strive to understand the bigger picture around the evolution of life. This includes understanding the geology, geography, ecology, climatology and oceanography over huge timescales.
Fossil Rock Prehistoric, Pixabay, CC0
What a paleontologist wants to find out when studying the past
Finding a section of interest
Fossil in limestone, CC0
The first step is to clearly define what you want to study. It can be an intersting fossil found in the field, a documented fossil that needs further explanation, a geological timeperiod that needs more paleontological information... There is plenty of reasons to study a particular section !
For the sake of our example, let's say we found a fossil and we wanted to find out more about it.
Fossil identification
The most well known part of paleontology has to be fossil identification. Is it a "body fossil" or "trace fossil"? Body fossils are any lithified parts of an animal or a plant. For animals, the parts that are the most often found are bones, skin, horn, shell and teeth.
Environment of deposition
Geology knowledge is needed in order to uncover what the environment was like at the time that the surrounding rock was deposited. This is key in order to create a complete picture of the environment at the time. Did this rock get deposited in a desert? a shallow sea? the deep ocean?
Magnetic properties of certain minerals like magnetite can record the Earth's magnetic field during their formation, allowing to narrow down the past location of the continent where the fossil was found.
All these methods and many more need to be used to give context to the found fossil.
Fossils in the sediment record, sketch by Leonluca Klein
Radiometric dating
Concordia plot for radiometric dating, by Nils Van Weelderen
Ever wondered how people manage to give an age to a fossil? Radiometric dating is a very powerful tool to find the age of a rock. This technique relies on the principle of radioactive decay and can measure when a chemical system closed in the past. Traditionally, it works by comparing the ratio of the concentration of a radioactive isotope of an element to the stable isotope of that element. The more time that has elapsed since the closing of the system, the more of the radioactive isotope has decayed, thus changing the relative concentration ratios. The accuracy of this technique as well as the maximum age that you can date with it depend on the half-life of the radioactive isotope.
Certain elements can use multiple radioactive isotopes, thus leading to a hight accuracy overall. This is the case for the U/Pb dating, creating so called "concordia plots".
Accurate dating of fossils allow to place it within the bigger picture. This allows for the comparion of fossils from anywhere around the world, making it possible to produce elaborate famlily trees, unravelling the evolution of life on Earth.
Additional useful links
Further Paleontology information:
Paleontology description by environmentalgeoscience.org
Geological society of London Paleontology degree informations
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Related careers:
Geological society of London careers
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Interesting blogs: