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# palaeontology

«palaeontology» in Mova's school dictionary: **The science that studies life from long ago, mostly…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (palaeontology, uncountable); US spelling paleontology

### meaning for a pupil

1) The science that studies life from long ago, mostly through fossils of animals and plants, such as dinosaurs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/#m1)

2) The study of how living things changed over millions of years. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons on fossils and evolution, palaeontology tells us about dinosaurs, ancient sea creatures and early plants. A palaeontologist digs up fossils, cleans them and works out what the animal was like. Mary Anning, a fossil hunter from Lyme Regis in England, found famous fossils in the 1800s.

### examples

- Palaeontology is the study of fossils. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/#x1)
- She wants to study palaeontology and dig up dinosaurs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/#x2)
- Mary Anning made great discoveries for palaeontology. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/#x3)
- Palaeontology tells us that sharks are older than trees. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/#x4)
- The museum has a palaeontology room full of bones. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/#x5)
- In palaeontology, a single tooth can tell you what an animal ate. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/#x6)

### note

UK spelling: palaeontology; US spelling: paleontology. Person: palaeontologist. Pronounced "pal-ee-on-TOL-uh-jee". Myth: palaeontologists do not study human history in old cities; that is archaeology. Dinosaurs and people never lived at the same time.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «palaeontology» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/palaeontology/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.