Why is the study of fossils important in todays world? Is paleontology really relevant?
I could compile a long list of ways in which paleontology is “important” and “relevant” in today’s world. I could try to relate what we’ve learned about the past and how this knowledge pertains to various practical matters today the lessons of extinction, the relevance of fossils to the creation/evolution debate, what studies of paleoclimatology tell us about current global climatic change, how biostratigraphy helps guide exploration for non-renewable fossil fuels, how we can employ the fascination of dinosaurs to teach children how to learn in school, how we’re anchored in our biological past and the influence that knowledge has in forming our views of self, and so on. There are clearly myriad ways in which paleontology is both important and relevant today. I could also underscore that we may not realize now the relevance of our paleontological research for future discoveries in other, more applied fields. But, in actuality, I perhaps don’t have as strong a compulsion to force the iss
