Paleobiology in the 21st Century.

Paleobiology in the 21st Century.
Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2020 Apr;303(4):645-648
Authors: Hedrick BP, Dodson P
Abstract
The diversity of research performed by vertebrate paleobiologists is immense, including primary descriptions of newly discovered taxa, biomechanical analyses of extant animals, large-scale macroevolutionary analyses with hundreds of taxa, and many others. This special issue of The Anatomical Record highlights the scope of the research done by paleobiologists, with an emphasis on dinosaurs and their relatives, and is structured into three broad categories of research: (1) anatomical descriptions, (2) the biology of the dinosaurs and their relatives, and (3) macroevolutionary trends. Although these topics all fall within the purview of contemporary paleobiology, many of these topics have been studied in one form or another since the beginning of dinosaur paleobiology as a field. Rather than the topics themselves, what characterizes the modern renaissance of paleobiology is the employment of newly developed quantitative techniques to analyze the relationships between taxa and their evolutionary history. While primary anatomical descriptions remain the central pillar of dinosaur paleobiology, researchers now have a suitable baseline understanding of dinosaurian anatomy and their major evolutionary relationships. Using this baseline, they are able to ask more complex questions and refine their understanding of dinosaurian e...

Source: Anatomical Record - March 13, 2020 Category: Anatomy Authors: Hedrick BP, Dodson P Tags: Anat Rec (Hoboken) Source Type: research