Paleontology

PALEONTOLOGY (paleozoology and paleophytology), the science of fossil living beings, originally served to establish the geological age of successively deposited layers of the earth's crust, characterized by the remains of certain "guide" organisms, and in this respect long acquired great practical significance in the study of the occurrence of useful minerals. Later, P. developed into an independent scientific discipline studying the structure of fossil organisms and their relationship with modern ones, which is of great importance for establishing the history of the living population of the earth's crust, for establishing the history of the organisms themselves (their phylogeny), and for establishing the laws of their evolution. Even in antiquity, the similarity found in the earth's crust of shells and bones with the remains of modern (often marine) animals attracted human attention and was sometimes correctly interpreted as proof of the marine origin of the corresponding parts of the earth's crust. However, in the Middle Ages, mysticism penetrating all human worldview saw in this only "nature's play," "failed acts of creation," or the result of the activity of a special "plastic force." The study of the history of the earth's crust in the 18th century led to the accumulation of a large amount of factual material that no longer made it possible to view the completely regular occurrence of the remains of certain organisms* in certain layers as "nature's play." The universally recognized founder of P. as a science is one of the largest naturalists of France, J. Cuvier (G. Cuvier, 1769-1832). Trying to reconstruct the organization of fossil animals as a whole from a few bone remains, J. Cuvier also studied in the greatest detail the structure of modern animals. The principle of the relationship of parts ("correlation") established by him allowed him to encompass the whole organization of the animal in its inseparable connection with the surrounding environment. Although in this synthetic understanding of the organization of living beings J. Cuvier far outstripped his century, on the other hand, he had not yet reached an understanding of the variability of forms in time and assumed that animals of past epochs and even whole faunas fell victims to grandiose geological upheavals. When after the studies of C. Lyell geology abandoned the theory of catastrophes and the fact of the variability of organisms was proved by the works of C. Darwin, new tasks fell upon P.: it supplied material for proving the evolutionary theory and at the same time made it possible to establish genetic connections between various, sometimes very distant organisms and thus shed light on their history. P., however, did not immediately become truly part of the biological disciplines. In most cases, paleontologists described in detail the impressions, shells, and bones which interested them mainly as "guide" forms of certain geological epochs. At the same time, however, remarkable studies of the history of organisms also appeared: F. Hilgendorf (1866) and W. Waagen (1869) established excellent series of mollusk forms (Planorbis multiformis, Ammonites subradiatus); the talented Viennese paleontologist M. Neumayr (1889) described a remarkable series of Paludina shells. The enormous material on the history of vertebrates was processed in America by E. Cope (E. Cope) in connection with various evolutionary problems, as well as Marsh (O. Marsh), who gave, among other things, a remarkably complete history of the development of the horse; in France, excellent studies belong to A. Gaudry, who clarified, among other things, the history of bears, and in the USSR to V. Kovalevsky, to whom we owe classical studies of various ungulates. The largest summary bringing together the results of this phylogenetic period of development of P. is the manual on paleontology by Zittel (K. v. Zittel), published in 1876-1893, which constituted a whole epoch in this science. In terms of the originality of their works, the greatest significance, however, undoubtedly belongs to the brilliant studies of the aforementioned Russian scientist Vladimir Kovalevsky (1843-1883), whose works outlined the later stage in the development of P. and precisely that branch of it which at present has received the name paleobiology. Considering the organism as a more or less harmonious whole in inseparable connection with the environment in which the animal lives, V. Kovalevsky makes an attempt to breathe life into fossil remains and restore the history of the animal in connection with the conditions of habitation and changes in the surrounding environment, to establish the laws of their evolution, the causes of extinction, etc. The most brilliant modern representatives of paleobiology, L. Dollo in Belgium, H. Osborn (H. F. Osborn) in America, and O. Abel in Austria, unanimously recognize Kovalevsky as their teacher and successfully carry out further work on the study of the life of extinct animals. Modern problems of paleobiology naturally expand also in the direction of studying the pathology of fossil animals. In this respect, a special interest is represented by the recently published large collective work (Abel, Kyrle) on the study of the biology of the cave bear, in which various pathological changes (periostitis, myositis, osteomyelitis, arthritis, spondylitis, rickets, ankylosis, kyphosis of the spine, etc.) are studied in great detail, and the mortality of the bear by age is also studied (especially significant in newborns) in connection with the assumed degeneration of the bear, etc. The methodology of extracting, preserving, preparing, and generally studying fossils and impressions is also being perfected using special, partially very fine tools (preparation with needles under a binocular microscope); the preparation of serial sections allows, in some cases, to reconstruct not only the skeleton but also various soft parts: muscles, nervous system, blood vessels, etc. Especially remarkable in their subtlety are such studies on the oldest fossil fish by the Swedish paleontologist Stensio (E. A. Stensio). Research work in the field of P. is naturally connected with appropriate collections, and thus its centers are paleontological departments of large natural history museums, especially the British Museum in London, the American Museum in New York, the museums of Vienna, Stockholm, the Paleontological Museum in Brussels, the paleozoological museum of the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad, as well as paleontological institutes of various universities (in Berlin, in Vienna, etc.; in our country especially the University of Moscow).