Ancient times
Most often, when people think of the first forms of life on Earth, dinosaurs come to mind. But the idea that they are the oldest inhabitants of our world, since as much as 65 million years have passed since their disappearance, is a mistake. According to some scientists, life on the planet originated 3.9 billion years ago, and this figure is very difficult to realize.
In those periods, the Earth was inhabited mainly by the first bacteria and microorganisms, and much later the first invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles appeared.
Even in ancient Greece, scientists found fossilized remains of various life forms, but, of course, they could not find out anything about their age and origin, and therefore did not study them purposefully. But in the Middle Ages, during the Renaissance, interest in the ancient inhabitants of our world flared up with renewed vigor. And in the early nineteenth century, the term “paleontology” was coined.
Our time
So, according to the official definition, paleontology is the study of ancient life forms that existed in past geological periods and have been preserved to this day in the form of fossilized remains and their fragments. It is also worth noting that this science recreates the intermediate stages of biological species based on the theory of biological evolution.
The study of fossilized bones, analysis of traces and other facts of the existence of organisms – all this is within the scope of interest of such a science as paleontology. What can this research give us? Apart from theoretical knowledge and ideas about the course of evolution, not much. But the fact is that the basic humanities do not aim to pursue any material benefit at all.
Probably the most famous part of the objects of study of such a science, thanks to which everyone has heard about it at least once, is the study of dinosaurs of all kinds and epochs. But in practice, everything is more prosaic – their fossils are rare and far from complete, so even in museums you can see only reconstructions of skeletons, where only a small part of the real bones are present.
When answering the question of what paleontology studies, it is worth mentioning the inhabitants of the ancient oceans – various trilobites and others. Their remains are quite well preserved in rocky sediments and sandstone layers. And the youngest representatives of the historical fauna are mammoths.