Mary Allen
Paleontology is a science. She deals with old, extinct plants and animals. The word contains the ancient Greek “palaios”, which means “old”. An example of an extinct animal is the dinosaur.
Paleontologists want to find out how animals and plants lived many thousands or millions of years ago. It’s also about how they are related to modern-day creatures. In this way, you also learn something about the age of the layer of earth in which they were found.
Since ancient times people have wondered about petrified bones or plant, fossils. Around the year 1800, the science of paleontology emerged. Georges Cuvier from France compared fossils. He also found that some fossil animals do not resemble modern animals: so animals can become extinct.