Paleontology and Paleoecology

1
Paleontology and Paleoecology

• Historical Perspectives on Fossils Principles
  of Paleoecology

2
Historical Perspectives on Fossils

• Shaped Stones
• Lightning scars, supernatural temptations, divine
  jokes and mysterious vapors
• Washed in during biblical flood
• Crawled into rock and died
• Fossil something dug up (Latin)

3
Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519)
Leonardo sketched fossils and recognized them as
the remains of ancient life.
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Niels Stenson(a.k.a. Nicholas Steno)(1638-1686)

• Observations on sediments
• Superposition
• Original horizontality
• Original lateral continuity
• tongue stones

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Niels Stenson(a.k.a. Nicholas Steno)(1638-1686)

• Tongue stones looked like teeth because they
  were teeth!
• Fossils are remains of once living creatures
  (revival of DaVincis interpretation).

6
Robert Hooke (1703)

• These remains have a fixed life span and
  therefore can be used like Roman coins in
  determining age relationships
• First statement of fossil succession
• Concept revisited by William Smith in early
  1800s
• Smith used fossils to correlate and make the
  first geologic map

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Fossils

• Remains or traces of ancient life
• Bones, Teeth, Shells, Tracks, Trails
• Soft tissues rare

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Utility of Fossils

• History of Life on Earth
• Evolution appearances of new species
• Extinction disappearances of species
• Framework for other events in Earths History
• Guide in exploring for fossil fuels
• Important clues to ancient environmental
  conditions

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Principles of Paleoecology

• Organisms adapt to their environments
• Fossils provide clues to organism lifestyle
• Analogy to living relatives
• Functional Morphology
• Association with other fossils similar
  preferences
• Type of substrate

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Environmental Factors that Influence Distribution
of Organisms

• Salinity
• Oxygenation
• Temperature
• Light
• Nutrients
• Type
• Abundance
• Distribution
• Agitation/Currents
• Clarity/Cloudiness of Water
• Substrate preferences
• Grain Size firm/soft
• Composition
• Mobility/stability

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Preferences/Lifestyles of Organisms Tell Us About
Environmental Conditions

• Sessile organisms rely on currents to bring food
• Motile organisms can search for food in water or
  in/on sediment
• Distribution of food related to
  agitation/currents
• Therefore, related to oxygenation also

12
Ways to Feed

• Producer Plants
• Primary Consumer Herbivore
• Secondary Consumer Carnivore
• Passive/semi-active
• Filter feeding
• Active Feeding
• Swimming, crawling, scavenging, preying