VII.

History of Paleontology

The collection and study of fossils began in the late 17th century when English naturalist Robert Hooke examined fossils of marine creatures from England. He realized that these animals must have lived in different climatic conditions and were now extinct. The field of paleontology grew as more fossils of different ages were discovered around the globe. English scientist Charles Darwin used the fossil record to form his theory of evolution in the 1830s. Modern paleontologists have used the fossil record to further develop the theory of evolution and to divide earth’s history into periods based on the kinds of life that were present. These periods begin with Precambrian time (about 4 billion to 570 million years before present), when earth was populated by soft-bodied organisms whose remains were not well preserved, and extend through the current time period, the Recent, or Holocene, Epoch (10,000 years before present to the present time).