Paleontology - Study of Fossils

Paleontology - Study of Fossils

Where Biology and Geology meet

Specimens on display at the Living with Nature Center 

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Paleontology is the study of ancient life, from dinosaurs to prehistoric plants, mammals, fish, insects, fungi, and even microbes. Fossil evidence reveals how organisms changed over time and what our planet was like long ago.

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Petrified Wood of an Early Dipterocarp Tree

A chunk of the trunk of a prehistoric tree reveals the structure of cells comprising the xylem as we know from living plants today.  Plant evolution and taxonomy comprise a scientific study under paleontology or palaeontology, a branch of biology.

 

  

How old are these petrified wood specimens? 

To determine the age of the tree from which these specimens were derived requires a special technique called Carbon-14 Dating. Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. 

  

Origin of Marble and Amber

Left: Limestone, formed from the calcareous remains of marine organisms in the distant past, is a main source of cement we use today. Limestone undergoes metamorphosis into marble, a metamorphic rock,  Right, resin mainly solidified exudate of gymnosperms like pines and cypress, metamorphoses likewise through time and pressure into amber. Amber may carry trapped insects, arachnids, fungi, and the like, revealing their identity and habit.  Quite often, their complete structure is revealed by the clear  transparency of the amber.

Author and student examine skeletons of organisms. 

These are potential fossils

Remains of organisms like shells, bones, and other skeletal parts may undergo fossilization to form true fossils, otherwise they simply deteriorate and ultimately decompose into elements, a process of recycling to keep the balance of nature called homeostasis.    

 
 

Fossils of Microorganisms

Upper photos: These rocks may contain fossils of microorganisms like algae, bacteria and protozoans, which are  studied meticulously under the microscope. Lower photos from Internet  are electron microphotographs of bacteria, some as old as 1.5 billion years, predating the oxygen-producing microorganisms. 

 

Artist's interpretation of Fossilization

 Fossilization of a ground fowl, and tree in a bog, in acrylic on wood by the author 2017.

  

Indeterminate fossils.  

What are these really?  Left, elephant's tusk?  Right, tools of Stone Age man?.

 

 

Generally rocks are classified as sedimentary, igneous (or volcanic) and metamorphic. Different rocks may form conglomerates or aggregate rocks.

First cannon ball; flower of stones. 

 Fossil

                                                                     Dr Abe V Rotor

Marlo and Anna at the Dinosaur Exhibit, Manila 1987

Even your tree has been felled,

your phylogeny now a memory;

for your were lost in the current,

in the repetitious mechanism

of the universe,

when one day stood still

while you were acting

in too many parts of the play,

in too long a time.

Your life is twice told, 

understanding it backward,

through the art 

of marble and mud. ~

Petrified Wood

Dr Abe V Rotor

Petrified wood (Pietro, rock) is a fossil formed by the infiltration of minerals into cavities between and within cells of natural wood, usually by silica (silicon dioxide, SiO₂) or calcite (calcium carbonate, CaCO₃). Petrification is a very slow anaerobic process.

The replacement of organic tissue by mineral deposits is so precise that the internal structure as well as the external shape is faithfully represented; sometimes even the cell structure may be determined.

Petrified rocks are cut and polished into many items of commerce and art such as furniture, adornments, and decors.~