By: Whitley Elzy

EYEWITNESS BOOK RESEARCH

FOSSILS
The Paleozoic World was
about 545 418 MYA B.C.
Paleozoic means “ancient
life”. The world was
thought to be one whole
connected land with a few
islands in the Southern
Polar area. It was called
Gondwanaland. Most
animals lived in the sea and
there was an abundance of
invertebrates. Fossils had
told them this. (Such a lie.)

545-418 MILLION YEARS AG (MYA)

417-249 B.C Million
Years Ago makeup of the
land had changed. The
world almost was one
super continent called
Pangaea. Vegetation had
evolved and more animals
became land animals. This
was the during the time of
Devonian, Carboniferous,
and Permian periods.

417-249 MYA (MILLION YEARS AGO)

249 B.C – 2010

After Pangaea the

world kept moving
through Jurassic times
and more. It
eventually came to the
world we are at. Many
of the animals became
extinct and are found
through fossils.
Naturalist during this
time had no clue what
fossils were. They
thought that some
natural ‘plastic force’
encased the strange
objects for us. It
wasn’t until later in
the 17th century that
the real fossils were
found out.

A.D 400- 1400

During Early Paleontology many
naturalist/scientists thought that
fossils were something totally
different. It was until Niels
Stensen, or Steno, discovered.
Steno is of Danish decent and he
worked as a court physician in
Florence, Italy. The provoking of
the first idea came when he
randomly notice something. That
what humans of the world called
Tongue Stones looked vaguely
familiar to shark teeth. Lo and
behold it turned out to be shark
teeth. This was the beginning of
new findings.

1638-1686
This is when Georges Cuvier, a
French naturalist, gave a lot of
attributes to Paleontology. He
noticed that animals bones were
closely interrelated to what kind
of food they ate. He noticed this
early in his career which made
him popular. This made him
popular with other scientists
because it gave them a way to
build animals by looking at how
there bones are. Cuvier also
realized that many of the fossil
remnants were from extinct
species. Which made him write a
history saying that many were
destroyed during the Biblical
Flood.

1769-1832
William Smith was a engineer and
surveyor. He was very important
because he also helped Geologist
Scientists. He went around in
England gathering fossils he
found in rocks. As he was
collecting he realized that the
rocks with the same fossil and
fossil parts were from the same
age era. Geologists use this to help
them with the ages of rocks. Since
Geology is the study of rocks.

1769-1839
A Swiss-born naturalist named
Louis Agassiz. He was a
special one. He emigrated to
the U.S. He was smart and
grew up to teach history at
Harvard University. He was
one of the first people to have
an interest in Paleontology
and he encouraged people to
be interested also. He became
famous from studying fish
fossils. He was influenced by
Cuvier and discovered the
origin of many rocks from,
perhaps, the biblical flood.

1807-1873
Edward Drinker Cope
participated in a “gold
rush” for dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs were being
discovered many people
around 1841. Well cope
rushed off along with other
people. He gathered
himself a team and he
along with another famous
person, Marsh, discovered
many new dinosaur
species. This took place in
Montana and Wyoming.

1870 AND 1879

Sources:
Eyewitness
information books.
Internet

Bye Bye ….

THE WONDERFUL END