Article - The Paleontology Resource Page: Phonydiploma.com

Paleontology is the study of ancient life that includes evolution of the organisms and their interactions with each other. There are many different subdivisions in paleontology: micropaleontology, palynology, invertebrate paleontology, paleobotany, vertebrate paleontology, taphonomy, human paleontology, ichnology, and paleoecology. Paleontology provides information about the origin, environment, evolution of an organism, and their relationship with the earth’s organic and inorganic past.

General Interest

• The Paleontology Portal: A great resource for understanding paleontology in North America.
• Understanding Evolution: This education website provides valuable information on the history of evolutionary biology. 
• Evolution Controversy: Talkorigin is a dedicated website for the debate and discussions of physical and biological origins of living organisms.
• Paleonet: An excellent online collection with paleontological information and features.

Museums

• Royal Tyrrell Museum: The Royal Tyrrell Museum is an internationally recognized scientific and public museum that is devoted to the science of paleontology.
• The Field Museum: This museum features a life over time exhibition and the latest information about Sue the T-Rex.
• Museum of Natural History: This museum provides information on humanities and natural world through teaching, research, and education.
• Florida Museum of Natural History: This website lists many collections of bird fossils and invertebrate paleontology.
• The Hunterian Museum: The Hunterian Museum contains large collections of art, coins and medals, archeology of world cultures, medicine and anatomy, fossils and dinosaurs, rocks and minerals, and zoology.
• Cincinnati Museum Center: This center provides information on vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology research and features a large collection of invertebrate fossils.
• Canadian Museum of Nature: The Canadian Museum of Nature provides information on research, collections, and exhibits of natural life.

Departments

• Invertebrate Paleontology: This department focuses on study and research materials and also links to Mark Wilson’s research and field photographs.
• Paleontology at KU: Paleontology program at The University of Kansas include specimen based invertebrate paleontology, paleoecology, and taphonomy.
• Harvard University: The Invertebrate Paleontology Department at Harvard University includes research collections, publications, and links.
• Department of Earth Science: The University of California, Santa Barbara's earth science department has done research on various areas of paleontology including Proterozoic and Cambrian Paleontology.
• Department of Paleobiology: The National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institute, has collections on dinosaurs, geologic time, and much more.

Organizations:

• The Geological Society of America: GSA provides information on earth science and unites many earth scientists around the globe.
• American Geophysical Union: This union is completely devoted to the advancement of geophysical science, with the help of national and international scientific organizations.
• Ecological Society of India: This nonprofit organization encourages communication among ecologists and increases awareness among people on the importance of ecological science.
• AASP – The Palynological Society: This society encourages the science of palynology and conducts annual meetings to discuss various aspects of palynology.
• Society of Sedimentary Geology: This nonprofit society provides scientific information on paleontology, sedimentology, environmental science, hydrogeology, stratigraphy, and other related studies.
• The Gulf Coast Section of SEPM (GCSSEPM): GCSSEPM encourages paleontology research, stratigraphy, and sedimentary petrology.
• Society of Vertebrate Paleontology: This society is for scientific and educational purposes and helps with the advancement of vertebrate paleontology.
• The Paleontological Association: The association helps the progress of research in paleontology and related sciences with journals and academic meetings.  

Journals

• Journal of the Paleontological Society: This is a quarterly journal dedicated to Paleobiology and also offers limited online access to non-members.
• Palaeontologia Electronica: This peer-reviewed journal discusses all aspects of paleontology.
• Cushion Foundation: This foundation publishes a journal of foraminiferal research and other special publications.
• Journal of Paleontology: This journal publishes articles on phylogeny, systematics, paleogeography, paleoecology, and organism evolution. 
• Journal of Micropaleontology: The journal publishes original information on evolution, paleobiology, paleoenvironments, taxonomic studies, and reviews.
• Palaeontologia Polonica: This monograph publication encourages new research methods and techniques in the field of paleontology.

Databases

• The Paleobiology Database: This public resource is organized and maintained by a group of paleobiological scientists. The database provides taxonomical and collection based information on plants and animals.
• Janus Database: The Janus Database provides information on marine geosciences.
• UCMP Data Model: This data model standardizes and normalizes the information collected from several museums into one system.
• National Geophysical Data Center: This is an atlas that is based on Levitus and Climap data.
• Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates: BFV is an indexed database that provides a collection of vertebrate paleontology literature.
• Large Marine Ecosystems: This site provides maps along with information on fisheries, productivity, and governance of coastal areas.

Special Interests

• The Willi Hennig Society: The Willi Hennig Society focuses on research in Phylogenetic Systematics.
• Department of Geosciences: This site is dedicated to the field of taphonomy.
• Software for Paleontology: A great resource that lists several websites, which provide software for paleontology research.
• Software for Biological Collection Management: This page lists software that is used in collection management.
• Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program: An excellent resource to help people understand the technique of using the leaves to obtain climatic information of the past.
• The Scientific Web: Scientific Web provides a complete index of scientific software in mathematics, data acquisitions, statistics, and other related fields.

Sources of Evidence

• Fossils: A great resource to help people understand fossils and how they are formed.
• Paleobiology: Fossils and Time: A good resource to help understand the fossils through the use of a variety of methods and techniques.
• Sampling Bias and Catastrophes in the Fossil Record: A resource outlining gradual extinction patterns found in fossil records.
• Trace Fossils and Burrows: This page provides excellent information on trace fossils and burrows with examples.
• Paleontology Evidence: An excellent resource that provides research evidence.
• The Permo-Triassic Extinction: Detailed information on PT extinction is given with events and references.

Classification

• Biological Classification: A good resource to understand the biological classification of organisms.
• What is Cladistics?: A simple guide to understand the basics of cladistics.
• PhyloCode: A good resource for understanding the PhyloCode and its rules.
• Classification and Phylogeny: A good resource to help people understand the hierarchical system, taxonomic ranks, genus, bionomical nomenclature, and species.
• Taxonomy and Nomenclature: This page provides a breakdown of how organic lifeforms are classified.
• Taxonomy: A simple and complete resource to understand everything about taxonomical classification.

Other Resources

• Hadrosaurus: This site provides information on the first found nearly-complete skeleton of a dinosaur.
• Boxgrove: Boxgrove is a research team that showcases many Paleolithic works.
• Links for Palaeobotanists: A good collection of links and information for palaeobotanists.
• Mazon Creek Fossil: An excellent resource with information on Mazon Creek fossils and their importance.
• Fossils of Kentucky: This page provides information and facts on the fossils of Kentucky.