The study of earlier forms of all life present in the fossil record. | paleontology |
The study of the fossil and archaeological record of humans and their primate ancestors. | paleoanthropology |
The term for any remains or traces of ancient organisms. Often they are mineralized bone, though they may be animal tracks, frozen or desiccated bodies, creatures trapped in amber, etc. | fossil |
Permanently frozen soil. This is a common condition above the arctic circle and in other similarly cold environments. | permafrost |
The study of the conditions under which plants, animals, and other organisms become altered after death, buried, and sometimes preserved as fossils. | taphonomy |
The term for a fossil consisting of a bone that has lost its organic components and now consists only, or primarily, of minerals. This is characteristic of surviving dinosaur and other very ancient bones. | mineralized bone |
The Neandertal skeleton that the French paleontologist, Marcellin Boule, analyzed early in the 20th century and incorrectly concluded was from a dull-witted, brutish, ape-like man who walked hunched over with a shuffling gait. This misled several generations of anthropologists. | la Chapelle-aux-Saints man |
The approach to assigning species names to new fossil skeletons based on the idea that if two fossils look slightly different, they should be categorized as being from two different species. This approach emphasizes minor differences. People who maintain this approach are generally referred to in the biological sciences as "splitters". | typological approach or viewpoint |
The approach to assigning species names to new fossil skeletons based on the idea that if two fossils have major similarities they should be categorized as being members of the same species. From this perspective, minor anatomical differences within the same population are expected since the members of living species have individual variation. People who advocate this viewpoint are also referred to in the biological sciences as "lumpers." | populational approach or viewpoint |
The term used by paleoanthropologists for a group of similar fossils whose range of morphological variation does not exceed the range of variation of a closely related living species. | paleospecies |