Systematic palaeontology and biostratigraphy: are they “dated”?

• Published in: Antarctic Science
• Main Author: Boucot, Art
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1992
• Subjects: Geology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Oceanography; Antarctic Science
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102092000403; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102092000403

There is probably something buried deeply within the human genome that urges man to collect, sort, and classify. How else is it possible to explain a child's collection of matchbook covers or Mendeleev's periodic classification of the elements? Systematic palaeontology and biostratigraphy turn this natural urge to very practical purposes, for the geologist and the evolutionist are dependent on the results. However, anyone reading the pages of certain palaeobiological journals, or a certain type of article on extinction, might be forgiven for concluding that we now have reached the point where further systematic description of fossils and further refining of our biostratigraphic classification had reached the point of diminishing returns.