PALEONTOLOGY (from Ok. ra2aio•, pain ios, ancient + Gra, pl. of 6p, 6n, being + -login, from X4-yetv, legs in, to speak ) . The science which deals with the ancient lite that has inhabited the earth during the past periods of geological time. It is based upon the study of fossils, and has close alliliations with geology, physiography, and biology. It 1.111 braces, under a broad conception of its scope, not alone the description and classification of fossils, hut also all questions relating to the nature, morphology, and physiology, bionomy and ecology, geologic and geographic distribution, and to the ontogeny, evolution. and phylogeny of all forms of plant and animal life that have lived upon the earth and that are 110W found, in more or less condition of silization, imbedded in the rocks that form the earth's crust. Paleontology is the history of the organic life of the earth from its inception in remote geologic time to its culmination in the vegetable and animal life of the present era. This science was founded on an independent basis by Lamarck, Curter. ,Sehlotheint, 8owerby, Parkinson. and Goldfuss about the ginning of the nineteenth century, and most of the early paleontological literature dealt with mere descriptions and classification: of fossils. After the publication of Origin of spccies in 1859, and the subsequent elaboration of the doctrine of evolution, it became evident that proof of this doctrine must be furnished largely by the paleontologists, and the study of fossil ganisms received a new impetus along those lines of research which hear upon the broader sophical questions of the origin. evolution. and phylogeny of the various species and races of fossil animals and plants. Quite coiirdinate with tins development of the biological phase of paleontology has been the elaboration of that phase of the science which is more closely allied to geology: namely the more refined methods iu the use of fossils as markers of geologic horizons, the investigation of the succession, migration, and evolution of fossil faunas and floras, and tin, determination of the changes and other causes of such phenomena.
Two lines of paleontological research may then be recognized. Certain investigators efinfinc their attention almost entirely to the elucidation of the morphology. embryology. ontogeny or opment, and phylogeny or genealogy, and to the description and classification of organic remains, noting the names only of the geological tions the species have heel] derived. Snell studies fall within the scope of paleohotany and paleczoiilogy. which are essentially branches of biology. The other phases of the science of ontology, and perhaps the more comprehensive of the two, may be designated as paleontologic ology, stratigraphic pah,ontology, geological ology, and deals with the existing be tween the fossils and the rucks whieh they are found. it is priotieally that part ofI geology which is based n the study f fossils. ruder this head entbraeed the i„1. lowing lines of investigation, and also othei s not mentioned that are of more special iutere-t : The use of index fossils as markers of geob gi al formations and horizons; (2) the assemblage, within individual formations. of species awl genera of fossil plants and animals to constitute paleofioras and paleolminas; and the of the succession, migration, and evolution of tlo ancient floras and faunas, and their relations to the grander division. of geologic tinie: 1:31 the development of facie. and the influence of the facies on the conditions of existeme of the lif of ancient times; I I) the study of raphy, comprising the determination of the pay siographie and climatic eonditions existent ing the successive periods Df the history. All these latter lines of investigation, however related in their final results to the pl y ien1 side of geology. nevertheless pen.' for their successful lawsuit intimate knowledge of the purely bioltigii•al aspect- of paleontology, for they are based primarily upon keen diserimi• nation between allied specie and upon lion of the phylog.enetic relationshij s of the cies involved.