RE: paleonet Re: Geobiology

[mbfarley@xxxxxxxxxx]

Roger Kaesler is not quite correct when he suggests that paleontology is the 
only field that tries to change its name to appear more fashionable. Some 
botanists began to think that "botany" was a boring term, and started pushing 
"plant science" as more hip. As a paleobotanist, I don't see that it makes much 
difference myself.


There is no question that people, even within paleontology, use different terms 
to mean overlapping things.  Some examples have already been mentioned, but 
there are others. I see some use as follows:

paleobiology–all of paleontology except biostratigraphy

	this is complemented nicely in the oil industry by the term

biostratigraphy–all of paleontology directly useful in the oil industry (i.e., 
all of paleontology except systematics and phylogeny)


It has been interesting to see discussion on geobiology because I was not clear 
on whether it was a synonym for paleobiology or referred to microbiology in 
geology. The latter has clear overlaps with paleontology, but not completely.  
I see that my confusion is shared by others.

I agree with Roger that use of multiple terms is not productive. It leads to 
confusion and demonstrates that communication within paleontology has important 
gaps. This diminishes the effectiveness of what we do and how we are perceived 
by others.



Martin Farley
Geology/Geography, BA 206
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Pembroke, NC 28372
mbfarley@sigmaxi.org