Micropaleontology

One field of paleontology that is often overlooked is micropaleontology, or the study of extremely small fossils. Micropaleontology, like microbiology, is mostly focused on extremely small organisms, such as one-celled organisms. Micropaleontology, however, can also encompass the very small larval stages that some larger animals go through as they grow.

Because micropaleontology examines such small organisms, which can only be properly examined through a microscope, it is often seen as a boring area of paleontology, much less exciting than digging up dinosaur bones. But micropaleontology is a very important field and is helping us to learn about the origins of life on Earth.

The oldest-known fossils to be found on Earth are sedimentary structures called stromatolites, found in Western Australia. They were made by cyanobacteria (also called "blue-green algae") that lived about 3.5 billion years ago, more than a billion years after the formation of the Earth. The geologic time period in which life was first starting out on Earth is known as the Precambrian Era (about 4 billion to 570 million years ago). The Cambrian Era (570 to 500 million years ago) was a time in which new life forms were appearing and changing rapidly and is often called the Cambrian Explosion.

The earliest life forms were marine organisms--algae and other one-celled organisms that either lived freely by themselves or might gather together to form colonies. These early life forms were all soft-bodied, meaning that they did not have hard exoskeletons to protect them. This also means that they did not readily fossilize, and the evidence we find of them often consists of trace fossils and impressions that their bodies left in the sediments.

About 600 million years ago (still in the Precambrian Era), microorganisms first began to develop mineralized exoskeletons for protection. This development was a boon to micropaleontologists, because it means that these microorganisms were much more likely to fossilize and their fossils are generally better preserved.

The study of micropaleontology is useful to the average person, as well as to the scientist. How so? you ask. Petroleum companies employ microbiologists to study the microfossils in areas where they think there may be large deposits of petroleum (crude oil used to make gasoline, natural gas, kerosene, asphalt and many other derivatives). Micropaleontologists examine the microfossils to determine whether it is likely that the companies will find oil.

So, the next time you fill your car with gasoline, be sure to thank the micropaleontologists (and the microfossils!) who made it possible.

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