As children grow up, they will be curious about everything around them.
They often ask:
Why is there an Earth?
How did humans come about?
Why dinosaurs? Why did dinosaurs go extinct?
These questions are not only children, in fact, many people will be curious.
It's just that there is no way to satisfy your desire to explore well.
If I told you that there is now a book called "The Mysteries of Paleontology You Must Know" that can answer our doubts and inform us about the history of the earth, would you be interested in flipping through it?
The book says that the earth was born 4.6 billion years ago, and in the early days of the earth's birth, the environment was very harsh and not suitable for the survival of species. In the long years that followed, the earth's environment gradually improved, and organisms began to multiply. In the process of biological reproduction, species become rich and diverse, which is why living organisms can survive countless mass extinction crises.
How did the author know about such a long time ago?
That's because there is a group of people in the world, paleontologists, who specialize in studying paleontology, and uncover the history of what happened on Earth through paleontology.
In the book, the author also introduces how they research, what they study, and constantly improve and update the technology of auxiliary research, as much as possible to restore paleontology and earth history, which is a very difficult process, but really interesting.
Paleontology, many of us may only know dinosaurs, the rest is unknown. Experts estimate that there have been 4.5 million species of organisms living on Earth over a history of about 4.6 billion years, far more than the 1.7 million species known today. Among them, there are about 250,000 known paleontological species.
The study of earth history requires the synthesis of many factors and knowledge, such as paleontology, geology, archaeology, microbiology, etc.
So, what exactly is paleontology? All earth creatures before the appearance of human ancestors are called paleontology. Paleontology refers not only to animals, but also to plants, microorganisms and all other living things.
So how were they discovered?
The best way to recognize extinct organisms is to study fossils, using fossilized organisms as clues for research. There are many types of fossils, and the representative ones mainly used for paleontological research include solid fossils, relic fossils, and chemical (molecular) fossils.
Solid fossils are fossils formed by the whole or part of an organism's body. Relic fossils are fossils that preserve traces of the life of living things. Chemical fossils are substances left behind by the remains of living organisms.
After continuously studying paleontology and calculating the history of the earth, paleontologists found that paleontologists, like living organisms, can reproduce each other in "species". This law of survival has begun since a long time ago.
In addition to the fact that the same race can reproduce each other, paleontologists have also discovered that biological evolution occurs collectively, not individually, and that biological evolution is not completed overnight and takes a long time. In the process of evolution, there are also subtle differences between individuals, which can promote the evolution of organisms into new species and be more adaptable.
The study of paleontology can not only know the law of species evolution, but also understand the causes of large-scale biological extinction, disease causes, environmental reasons, etc., which has certain research value and wake-up call.
Among them, scientists found traces of trichomoniasis on the fossils of tyrannosaurs from the Cretaceous, and it turned out that dinosaurs also suffered from bone cancer and suffered from diseases.
The author introduces new and interesting knowledge points rich in earth history and paleontology in the book, which is very interesting to read.
The book also introduces a lot of ancient creatures in form, types, habits, etc., it turns out that in addition to human beings on the earth, there are really many species that have existed, which is really eye-opening.
Giant veined dragonflies, existing in the Paleozoic Carboniferous, now dragonflies, locusts, blind bugs and many other winged kun, as early as this period. The giant veined dragonfly resembles a dragonfly in appearance, but is huge, and it is known to be up to 70 cm long after spreading its wings
Type most
Large insects. It was at the top of the food chain and fed on insects and amphibians smaller than itself.
The extinct giant veined dragonfly
Later, due to the drop in the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere and the emergence of competitors who prey on similar organisms, the giant veined dragonfly stopped growing in size in order to survive.
The bighorn deer are known to be large deer, about 3 meters long, about 2 meters tall at the shoulder, and weighing nearly 700 kilograms. Its double horns weigh about 45 kg, and its head and back have well-developed muscles to support heavy horns. Bighorn deer existed in the Cenozoic Neogene and Pliocene.
In the Lascaux caves in southwestern France, there are many precious frescoes created by ancient people about 20,000 years ago, including the image of a deer with amazing horns.
The bighorn deer are impressive by the huge branch-like horns on their heads, and like modern elk, male bighorn deer win mating rights through horn war.
In addition to the giant veined dragonfly and the bighorn deer, the book also introduces many extinct paleontology, which are interesting and fascinating.
If you are interested in the history of the earth, the diversity of organisms and the close connection between different organisms, and want to learn more deeply, you may wish to read this book to feel the charm of paleontology.