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# Paleontology Cheatsheet
## Fossils
- **Fossilization**: The process by which organic material is replaced by minerals
- **Types of fossils**:
- **Body fossils**: Remains of an organism's physical body
- **Trace fossils**: Traces of an organism's activity (e.g. footprints, burrows, bite marks)
- **Taphonomy**: The study of how organisms become fossilized
## Geological Time Scale
- **Eras**:
- Paleozoic
- Mesozoic
- Cenozoic
- **Periods**:
- Paleozoic: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian
- Mesozoic: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous
- Cenozoic: Paleogene, Neogene, Quaternary
- **Epochs**:
- Cenozoic: Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Holocene
## Evolution
- **Natural selection**: The process by which organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring
- **Phylogeny**: The evolutionary history of a group of organisms
- **Cladistics**: A method of determining the evolutionary relationships between organisms based on shared characteristics
- **Extinction**: The end of a species or group of organisms
## Paleobiology
- **Biomechanics**: The study of the mechanical properties of living organisms
- **Paleoecology**: The study of ancient ecosystems and the interactions between organisms and their environment
- **Paleoanthropology**: The study of ancient human life and culture
- **Micropaleontology**: The study of microscopic fossils
- **Macroevolution**: The study of large-scale evolutionary patterns and processes
- **Morphology**: The study of the form and structure of organisms
## Resources
- [The Paleontological Society](https://www.paleosoc.org/)
- [The Paleontology Portal](https://www.paleoportal.org/)
- [Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Paleobiology](https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/paleobiology)