History of invertebrate paleozoology

Last updated November 12, 2023

The history of invertebrate paleozoology (also spelled palaeozoology) differs from the history of paleontology in that the former usually emphasizes paleobiology and the paleoecology of extinct marine invertebrates, while the latter typically emphasizes the earth sciences and the sedimentary rock remains of terrestrial vertebrates.

The historical development of sub-vertebrate or non-vertebrate paleozoology may also be described as the history of invertebrate paleobiology or as the history of invertebrate paleontology. Nearly synonymous are the history of marine paleozoology, history of marine paleobiology, and history of marine paleontology – although the latter three may cover prehistoric fishes, sharks and simpler sea-dwelling organisms.

By far, invertebrate paleozoology is the easiest type of fossil collecting. Unlike the difficult-to-analyze and hard-to-interpret fossils of paleobotany (plants) and micropaleontology (microbes), and unlike the rarely found and poorly preserved skeletons of vertebrate paleontology, invertebrate fossils are usually both common and simple to identify. This is because many prehistoric invertebrates were hard-shelled molluscs, brachiopods, trilobites, bryozoans, crinoids or corals who were buried amid marine, sediment-preserving conditions; and therefore frequently fossilized.

Origins of invertebrate paleozoology

Stone-Age people were without doubt the very first fossil collectors. Fossilized echinoderms have been found in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, central England, decorating a long-buried human skeleton; the prehistoric gravesite was Neolithic.

In widely separated, ancient societies around the globe, there once were many legends and tales of great floods, sea serpents, dragons, sea monsters, and invertebrate cryptozoa associated with so-called formed stones or figured stones of sea shells, fishes, corals, sea lilies, tracks, burrows, and trails. But, as civilizations progressed, these odd rocks began to be recognized as the fossilized remains and traces of prehistoric animals.

Scholars in ancient Greece produced some of the first scientific insights. Preceding Charles Darwin by two thousand years, Anaximander of Miletus (611 to 547 BCE) proposed a non-creationist, evolutionary theory of life. After Xenophanes of Colophon (576 to 480 BCE) scrutinized fossils of mollusks and other sea-dwelling creatures entombed in rock strata, Xenophanes pronounced that these fossils were evidence of once-living animals. Similarly, after examining fossil sea shells around 440 BCE, Empedocles of Akragas hypothesized that natural selection was occurring over vast, incomprehensible expanses of time.

By the middle of the 4th century BCE, Aristotle was composing On the Origins of Animals . Both he and his follower/successor Theophrastus speculated that plastic forces within the earth had turned animals into fossils of stone.

In the medieval Islamic world, Avicenna (979 to 1039 CE), in his The Book of Healing (1027), offered an explanation of how the stoniness of fossils was caused. Aristotle previously explained it in terms of vaporous exhalations, which Avicenna modified into the theory of petrifying fluids (succus lapidificatus), which was elaborated on by Albert of Saxony in the 14th century and accepted in some form by most naturalists by the 16th century.^[1]

Paleozoology was an area of interest in the European Renaissance of scientific inquiry. Significantly, Georgius Agricola - a founder of mineralology - discussed and illustrated invertebrate fossils in his De Natura Fossilium (1546 / 1558).

Although remembered mostly for his development of binomial nomenclature and biotic systematics in his Systema Naturae (1735), Carl Linnaeus also described many prehistoric marine invertebrates which he had observed within Silurian strata in his native Sweden. And while Jean-Étienne Guettard (1715 to 1786) discussed the marine paleoecology of ancient mollusks, more and more fossils were being reported from the Americas and Australasia.

Georges L. L. Buffon subsequently described seven geologic Epochs of Nature (1778) wherein he boldly argued that fossiliferous sedimentary strata proved that the world was at least 70,000 years old. In 1795 the very first geochronologic period – the Jurassic – was named.

19th-century developments

Soon thereafter, Buffon's colleague Chevalier de Lamarck – a founder of invertebrate systematics and invertebrate paleontology – published still-more shell fossils in his Systematics of Animals Without Backbones , (1801) and his Natural History of Animals Without Backbones (1815 to 1822), so as to illustrate global changes in paleogeography. Lamarck also argued that the more adaptable prehistoric invertebrates were the animals that survived environmental change – a prelude to the concept of survival of the fittest .

Next, William Smith employed invertebrate index fossils to map British outcrops in his Geological Map of England and Wales with Part of Scotland (1815), and in his book the very next year, Strata Identified by Organized Fossils (1816).^[2]

Trilobite fossil ElrathiakingiUtahWheelerCambrian.jpg — Trilobite fossil

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison and Charles Lapworth quarried middle Paleozoic era index fossils, such as the extinct trilobites, extinct graptolites, and mostly extinct brachiopods. Their efforts led to the latter's ground-breaking treatise, The Silurian System (1839), and to the naming of the Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Permian geologic periods. Eclipsing Maurchison's inventory of Silurian fossils, however, was Adam Sedgwick's 1835 discovery of even-older Cambrian period fossils. Three years later, Sedgwick proposed that its stratigraphic era be named the Paleozoic.

Meanwhile, yet another Briton, Sir Charles Lyell, penned his Principles of Geology (1830) and Elements of Geology (1838) in which he divided the Tertiary into the epochs of Eocene, Miocene, Oligocene and Pliocene. By 1834 to 1838, naturalists from France to Russia were using the term "paleontology", and adding yet other names to its prehistoric eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages.

The provocative Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844 to 1853) by then-anonymous Robert Chambers, Alfred Russel Wallace's joint essay (1858) with Charles Darwin, and Darwin's Origin of Species (1859 to 1872) popularized the evolutionary theories of natural selection. Indeed, in the very first edition of his Origin of Species (1859), Darwin even speculated that the earth might be half a billion years old. Scientific critics, however, pressured him to withdraw this notion from all subsequent editions. In this book Darwin also expressed frustration at the seemingly total absence of Pre-Cambrian creatures prior to the Cambrian explosion of the invertebrates, since many critics saw this absence as proof of creationism.

Around the same time, James Hall produced his comprehensive, many volumes of Paleontology of New York State (1847 to 1894), based on his years of collecting trilobites, graptolites, brachiopods, crinoids, echinoids, mollusks and other ancient marine invertebrates.

Inspired by Darwin's manifesto, Thomas Henry Huxley emphatically cited embryologic and fossil evidence for the evolution of "higher" invertebrates from "lower" cnidarians, worms and mollusks, thereby elaborating what he concluded was Man's Place in Nature (1863). Another Darwinist, Ernst Haeckel, proposed a Protozoa-Metazoa theory of animal origins, while arguing that embryonic "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" throughout organic prehistory. Haeckel popularized his paleozoologic ideas with majestic genealogical trees of the Animal Kingdom in his General Morphology of Organisms (1866).

A half-century later, the genetic conclusions of Gregor Mendel (1822 to 1884) were revived by The Mutation Theory propounded by Hugo de Vries, thereby fortifying Darwin's 19th-century theory of evolution.^[3]

20th-century developments

Around the same time, paleozoologist Charles Doolittle Walcott proved trilobites to be arthropods – and not at all like mollusks. Then, in 1910, he discovered the best-preserved Cambrian fossils ever found: the Burgess shale fauna. Over the next seven years, Walcott excavated 80,000 fossils from the fossiliferous site.^[4]

Meanwhile, in The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915 / 1929), Alfred Wegener outlined his heretical theory of continental drift. Although he cited invertebrate fossils and continental geography in support of his idea, another half-century would pass before Wegener's theory would be vindicated by findings in geophysics and plate tectonics.

By that time, 20th-century sciences – such as biometrics, organic chemistry, electron microscopy and molecular phylogenetics – were aiding invertebrate paleobiologists as they searched for evidence even in the rugged, barren lands of Saharan Africa, Sinkiang, the Mongolian Plateau, and Antarctica.

In 1947, paleontologist Reg Sprigg discovered the Ediacaran fauna – the best-preserved fossil invertebrates of the billion-year-long Proterozoic eon. Darwin's 1859 embarrassment at the absence of Pre-Cambrian fossils was now put at rest.

Footnotes

↑ Rudwick, M. J. S. (1985), The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology, University of Chicago Press, p. 24, ISBN 0-226-73103-0
↑ For Smith's founding of English geology, read Simon Winchester (2001), The Map that Changed the World (London, England: HarperCollins and the Geological Society of London).
↑ For more about de Vries and Mendelism, see Theodosius Dobzhansky (1951), Genetics and the Origin of Species . ISBN 0-231-05475-0.
↑ For some provocative illustrations of Walcott's fossils, and an interesting critique of his discovery, read Stephen Jay Gould (1989), Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (New York: W. W. Norton).

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Invertebrate paleontology</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleozoology</span> Branch of paleontology, paleobiology, or zoology

Palaeozoology, also spelled as Paleozoology, is the branch of paleontology, paleobiology, or zoology dealing with the recovery and identification of multicellular animal remains from geological contexts, and the use of these fossils in the reconstruction of prehistoric environments and ancient ecosystems.

Paleobiology is an interdisciplinary field that combines the methods and findings found in both the earth sciences and the life sciences. Paleobiology is not to be confused with geobiology, which focuses more on the interactions between the biosphere and the physical Earth.

The history of paleontology traces the history of the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the fossil record left behind by living organisms. Since it is concerned with understanding living organisms of the past, paleontology can be considered to be a field of biology, but its historical development has been closely tied to geology and the effort to understand the history of Earth itself.

Paleontology in Ohio refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Ohio. Ohio is well known for having a great quantity and diversity of fossils preserved in its rocks. The state's fossil record begins early in the Paleozoic era, during the Cambrian period. Ohio was generally covered by seawater from that time on through the rest of the early Paleozoic. Local invertebrates included brachiopods, cephalopods, coral, graptolites, and trilobites. Vertebrates included bony fishes and sharks. The first land plants in the state grew during the Devonian. During the Carboniferous, Ohio became a more terrestrial environment with an increased diversity of plants that formed expansive swampy deltas. Amphibians and reptiles began to inhabit the state at this time, and remained present into the ensuing Permian. A gap in the local rock record spans from this point until the start of the Pleistocene. During the Ice Age, Ohio was home to giant beavers, humans, mammoths, and mastodons. Paleo-Indians collected fossils that were later incorporated into their mounds. Ohio has been the birthplace of many world famous paleontologists, like Charles Schuchert. Many significant fossils curated by museums in Europe and the United States were found in Ohio. Major local fossil discoveries include the 1965 discovery of more than 50,000 Devonian fish fossils in Cuyahoga County. The Ordovician trilobite Isotelus maximus is the Ohio state invertebrate fossil.

Paleontology in Indiana refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Indiana. Indiana's fossil record stretches all the way back to the Precambrian, when the state was inhabited by microbes. More complex organisms came to inhabit the state during the early Paleozoic era. At that time the state was covered by a warm shallow sea that would come to be inhabited by creatures like brachiopods, bryozoans, cephalopods, crinoids, and trilobites. During the Silurian period the state was home to significant reef systems. Indiana became a more terrestrial environment during the Carboniferous, as an expansive river system formed richly vegetated deltas where amphibians lived. There is a gap in the local rock record from the Permian through the Mesozoic. Likewise, little is known about the early to middle Cenozoic era. During the Ice Age however, the state was subject to glacial activity, and home to creatures like short-faced bears, camels, mammoths, and mastodons. After humans came to inhabit the state, Native Americans interpreted the fossil proboscidean remains preserved near Devil's Lake as the bones of water monsters. After the advent of formal scientific investigation one paleontological survey determined that the state was home to nearly 150 different kinds of prehistoric plants.

Paleontology in Illinois refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Illinois. Scientists have found that Illinois was covered by a sea during the Paleozoic Era. Over time this sea was inhabited by animals including brachiopods, clams, corals, crinoids, sea snails, sponges, and trilobites.

Paleontology in North Carolina refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U. S. state of North Carolina. Fossils are common in North Carolina. According to author Rufus Johnson, "almost every major river and creek east of Interstate 95 has exposures where fossils can be found". The fossil record of North Carolina spans from Eocambrian remains that are 600 million years old, to the Pleistocene 10,000 years ago.

Paleontology in New Jersey refers to paleontological research in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The state is especially rich in marine deposits.

Paleontology in New York refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of New York. New York has a very rich fossil record, especially from the Devonian. However, a gap in this record spans most of the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic.

Paleontology in Vermont comprises paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Vermont. Fossils are generally uncommon in Vermont. Nevertheless, however, significant finds have been made in the state. Very few fossils are known in Vermont east of the Green Mountains due to the type of rock underlying that area. During the early part of the Paleozoic era, Vermont was covered by a warm, shallow sea that would end up being home to creatures like brachiopods, corals, crinoids, ostracoderms, and trilobites. There are no rocks in the state from the Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, or Jurassic periods. The few Cretaceous rocks present contain no fossils. The Paleogene and Neogene periods are also absent from the local rock record. During the Ice Age, glaciers scoured the state. At times the state was inundated by seawater, allowing marine mammals to venture in. After the seawater drained away the state was home to mastodons. Local fossils had already attracted scientific attention by the mid-19th century when mastodon remains were found in Rutland County. In 1950 a major Paleozoic invertebrate find occurred. The Pleistocene Beluga whale Delphinapterus leucas is the Vermont state fossil.

Paleontology in Wisconsin refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The state has fossils from the Precambrian, much of the Paleozoic, some a parts of the Mesozoic and the later part of the Cenozoic. Most of the Paleozoic rocks are marine in origin. Because of the thick blanket of Pleistocene glacial sediment that covers the rock strata in most of the state, Wisconsin’s fossil record is relatively sparse. In spite of this, certain Wisconsin paleontological occurrences provide exceptional insights concerning the history and diversity of life on Earth.

Paleontology in Missouri refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Missouri. The geologic column of Missouri spans all of geologic history from the Precambrian to present with the exception of the Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic. Brachiopods are probably the most common fossils in Missouri.

Paleontology in Minnesota refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Minnesota. The geologic record of Minnesota spans from Precambrian to recent with the exceptions of major gaps including the Silurian period, the interval from the Middle to Upper Devonian to the Cretaceous, and the Cenozoic. During the Precambrian, Minnesota was covered by an ocean where local bacteria ended up forming banded iron formations and stromatolites. During the early part of the Paleozoic era southern Minnesota was covered by a shallow tropical sea that would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, bryozoans, massive cephalopods, corals, crinoids, graptolites, and trilobites. The sea withdrew from the state during the Silurian, but returned during the Devonian. However, the rest of the Paleozoic is missing from the local rock record. The Triassic is also missing from the local rock record and Jurassic deposits, while present, lack fossils. Another sea entered the state during the Cretaceous period, this one inhabited by creatures like ammonites and sawfish. Duckbilled dinosaurs roamed the land. The Paleogene and Neogene periods of the ensuing Cenozoic era are also missing from the local rock record, but during the Ice Age evidence points to glacial activity in the state. Woolly mammoths, mastodons, and musk oxen inhabited Minnesota at the time. Local Native Americans interpreted such remains as the bones of the water monster Unktehi. They also told myths about thunder birds that may have been based on Ice Age bird fossils. By the early 19th century, the state's fossil had already attracted the attention of formally trained scientists. Early research included the Cretaceous plant discoveries made by Leo Lesquereux.

Paleontology in Texas refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Texas. Author Marian Murray has said that "Texas is as big for fossils as it is for everything else." Some of the most important fossil finds in United States history have come from Texas. Fossils can be found throughout most of the state. The fossil record of Texas spans almost the entire geologic column from Precambrian to Pleistocene. Shark teeth are probably the state's most common fossil. During the early Paleozoic era Texas was covered by a sea that would later be home to creatures like brachiopods, cephalopods, graptolites, and trilobites. Little is known about the state's Devonian and early Carboniferous life. Evidence indicates that during the late Carboniferous the state was home to marine life, land plants and early reptiles. During the Permian, the seas largely shrank away, but nevertheless coral reefs formed in the state. The rest of Texas was a coastal plain inhabited by early relatives of mammals like Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus. During the Triassic, a great river system formed in the state that was inhabited by crocodile-like phytosaurs. Little is known about Jurassic Texas, but there are fossil aquatic invertebrates of this age like ammonites in the state. During the Early Cretaceous local large sauropods and theropods left a great abundance of footprints. Later in the Cretaceous, the state was covered by the Western Interior Seaway and home to creatures like mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and few icthyosaurs. Early Cenozoic Texas still contained areas covered in seawater where invertebrates and sharks lived. On land the state would come to be home to creatures like glyptodonts, mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, titanotheres, uintatheres, and dire wolves. Archaeological evidence suggests that local Native Americans knew about local fossils. Formally trained scientists were already investigating the state's fossils by the late 1800s. In 1938, a major dinosaur footprint find occurred near Glen Rose. Pleurocoelus was the Texas state dinosaur from 1997 to 2009, when it was replaced by Paluxysaurus jonesi after the Texan fossils once referred to the former species were reclassified to a new genus.

Paleontology in Colorado refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Colorado. The geologic column of Colorado spans about one third of Earth's history. Fossils can be found almost everywhere in the state but are not evenly distributed among all the ages of the state's rocks. During the early Paleozoic, Colorado was covered by a warm shallow sea that would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, conodonts, ostracoderms, sharks and trilobites. This sea withdrew from the state between the Silurian and early Devonian leaving a gap in the local rock record. It returned during the Carboniferous. Areas of the state not submerged were richly vegetated and inhabited by amphibians that left behind footprints that would later fossilize. During the Permian, the sea withdrew and alluvial fans and sand dunes spread across the state. Many trace fossils are known from these deposits.

The geological history of North America comprises the history of geological occurrences and emergence of life in North America during the interval of time spanning from the formation of the Earth through to the emergence of humanity and the start of prehistory. At the start of the Paleozoic era, what is now "North" America was actually in the southern hemisphere. Marine life flourished in the country's many seas, although terrestrial life had not yet evolved. During the latter part of the Paleozoic, seas were largely replaced by swamps home to amphibians and early reptiles. When the continents had assembled into Pangaea drier conditions prevailed. The evolutionary precursors to mammals dominated the country until a mass extinction event ended their reign.

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[1] Rudwick, M. J. S. (1985), The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology, University of Chicago Press, p. 24, ISBN 0-226-73103-0

[2] For Smith's founding of English geology, read Simon Winchester (2001), The Map that Changed the World (London, England: HarperCollins and the Geological Society of London).

[3] For more about de Vries and Mendelism, see Theodosius Dobzhansky (1951), Genetics and the Origin of Species . ISBN 0-231-05475-0.

[4] For some provocative illustrations of Walcott's fossils, and an interesting critique of his discovery, read Stephen Jay Gould (1989), Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (New York: W. W. Norton).

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