ABSTRACT
A term coined at the beginning of the nineteenth century to describe the branch of *biology dealing with ancient life-forms, especially those preserved as fossils by the gradual petrifaction of the hard parts of their bodies. The fossil record played a highly significant role in the development of *geology, enabling rock strata in different places to be matched, and in the development of*evolutionary theory, particularly with respect to the prehistory of humankind mapped by physical *anthropology.
