Palaeontology 🦖

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Paleontology, also spelled palaeontology[a] or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their /c/paleoecology. Read more...

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Smithsonian's Paleobiology website
University of California Museum of Paleontology
The Paleontological Society
The Palaeontological Association
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
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"Geology, Paleontology & Theories of the Earth" – a collection of more than 100 digitised landmark and early books on Earth sciences at the Linda Hall Library

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A 19-million-year-old fossil jaw bone hints the biggest whales first evolved somewhere unexpected (phys.org)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Baleen whales are the titans of the ocean, the largest animals to have ever lived. The record holder is the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), which can reach lengths of up to 30 meters. That's longer than a basketball court.

However, throughout their evolutionary history, most baleen whales were relatively much smaller, around five meters in length. While still big compared to most animals, for a baleen whale that's quite small.

However, new fossil discoveries from the Southern Hemisphere are beginning to disrupt this story. The latest is an unassuming fossil from the banks of the Murray River in South Australia.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Did they evolve on Mars?!?
That would be pretty unexpected.