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CHAPTER VI. 



RELATIONS OF PALEONTOLOGY TO GEOLOGY AND 

 BIOLOGY— METHODS OF PALEONTOLOGY— CLASSI- 

 FICATION OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



In more than one of its aspects, Palaeontology stands in an intimate 

 relation with Geology. Thus, so far as it is concerned with investi- 

 gating the mode of life and distribution in space of fossil organisms, 

 Palaeontology becomes directly connected with the physiographical 

 side of Geology. From another point of view, in so far as it in- 

 vestigates the relations of fossil organisms to time, Palaeontology 

 becomes closely interwoven with Historical or Stratigraphical Ge- 

 ology. In all its fundamental aspects, however, Palaeontology is 

 essentially a branch of Biology — constituting a branch of Zoology 

 where it deals with animals, and of Bota?ty in so far as it deals with 

 plants. Palaeontology, therefore, may be properly divided into the 

 two departments of " Palaeozoology " and " Paleobotany." The 

 principal ground for the use of the separate term " Palaeontology," 

 as distinct from " Zoology " and " Botany," is simply that in study- 

 ing extinct organisms we have to take into account the time at which 

 these lived. It is therefore the element of time, and that alone, 

 which entitles us to speak of Palaeontology as an independent 

 science. 



The methods of palaeontological study are precisely the same as 

 those of Zoology and Botany. It is true that the earlier palaeontol- 

 ogists attached a certain importance to the age of a fossil, as bearing 

 upon the determination of its affinities, and that it was sometimes 

 assumed that fossils from deposits of different geological ages were 

 necessarily referable to different specific types. At the present day, 

 however, it is recognised that the systematic position and relation- 

 ships of an extinct organism must be settled by an appeal to its 

 morphological characters, altogether or to a great extent irrespective 

 of the age of the deposit in which it occurs. The zoologist and the 



