Glossary

**Paleontology** is the scientific study of life in the geologic past, conducted primarily through the analysis of plant and animal fossils—including those of microscopic size—preserved in rocks. The discipline encompasses all aspects of the biology of ancient life forms: their shape and structure, evolutionary patterns, taxonomic relationships with one another and with modern living species, geographic distribution, and interrelationships with their environments. Paleontology is mutually interdependent with stratigraphy and historical geology, because fossils serve as a principal means by which sedimentary strata are identified and correlated. Its investigative methods range from traditional comparative anatomy and biometry to modern techniques such as CT scanning, synchrotron imaging, isotopic analysis, histological sectioning, cladistic phylogenetics, and increasingly, deep-learning-based computational analysis of fossil imagery. The discipline has played a central role in reconstructing Earth's history and has furnished extensive evidence supporting the theory of evolution. Paleontological data have also aided in the discovery of petroleum and natural gas deposits. In the modern era, paleontology has expanded into a profoundly interdisciplinary science addressing paleoclimate reconstruction, biodiversity dynamics, mass extinction mechanisms, and the co-evolution of life and Earth systems.