Roy Plotnick has a nice piece about paleontology over on Scientific American. Paleontology is much, much more than just old bones and fossils. Its research provides an opportunity to understand the Earth both past, present, and future. Roy is always an insightful writer. It's good see him on a larger stage.
But the headlines over exciting new fossils, especially new dinosaurs, grossly underestimate the true importance of paleontology. Its real significance lies in how such discoveries illuminate the grand history of life on Earth. From its beginnings, more than three billion years ago, to the present day, fossils record how life adapted or perished in the face of major environmental challenges.
Just like the ones we face today. Knowing this history is critical to our response to just such challenges: climate change, ocean acidification, mass extinctions and other perils, mainly human-made, facing the biosphere and humanity. Alarmingly, the field is declining, just when we need it most.
