How do scientist know how an animal lived?
No one can be sure, as a living environment can’t be seen. As with all aspects of paleontology, most reconstructions are guesswork based on fossils. Many science need to work together to properly reconstruct an ancient landscape. Geologists are pivotal in any paleontological study. Geologists can determine a great deal about environments based on rock formations. Among the factors geologists can determine are: erosion patterns can give clues such as bodies of water present, natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes, and most importantly which species co-existed based on the strata (level of rock) they are found in. Strata can also give a rough idea of the age of a fossil. Paleobotonists (scientists who study ancient plants) can determine which plant life was present based on not only fossils of plant parts but pollen fossils as well. Pollen is often a great indicator of plant life as it is indestructible. (The only downfall to using pollen is that pollinating plants were not
