title: Paleobiology tags: [fossils, science] —
Site of the Week
Paleobiology* http://nmnhwww.si.edu/paleo/index.html
Dinosaurs roamed the Earth many millions of years ago, had long names, and are now all dead. That much we know. But to find out more about the world over the last few hundred million years, we need to head to somewhere like this - a website packed with just about all there is to know about paleobiology.
Paleobiology (yes, also spelt palaeobiology, before you email) is the study of extinct organisms of any kind, so we shouldn’t focus on dinosaurs alone. Of course, there’s plenty of material on T. rex and Triceratops, but there’s also tons to see and read on the other areas of this huge subject. Find out about invertebrate paleontology, for instance - the study of fossilised creatures without backbones. Here we discover organisms that we just don’t hear much about, perhaps because they didn’t have the potential to chase a landrover on a dark and stormy night. Read up on the story of Hallucigenia sparsa, an organism so bizarre-looking that scientists only recently worked out which way up it walked, or Opabinia regalis, a creature so mysterious that scientists have no idea how to classify it. Both lived around half a billion years ago.
Watch out for a couple of sections which suddenly leave the user-friendly design of the main site and present you with text-only lists of specimens - these are meant for research scientists to work with. These small problems are outweighed, though, by the brilliant content in the rest of the site. So grab your rock hammer, but don’t forget your microscope, and see what you can uncover.
- The full title of this week’s review should have been ‘The Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History’s Paleobiology Website.’ ‘Paleobiology’, though, is a shorter title. It just is.
Richard Northover
Info-content *** Readability ** Appearance ** User friendliness ** Kids ***** Plug-ins none