Neontology
Encyclopedia
Neontology is the part of biology
which – in contrast to paleontology
– deals with now living (recent) organisms. The term neontologist is usually used only by paleontologists to refer to non-paleontologists. Stephen Jay Gould
said of neontology:
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
which – in contrast to paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
– deals with now living (recent) organisms. The term neontologist is usually used only by paleontologists to refer to non-paleontologists. Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....
said of neontology:
All professions maintain their parochialismParochialismParochialism means being provincial, being narrow in scope, or considering only small sections of an issue. It may, particularly when used pejoratively, be contrasted to universalism....
s, and I
trust that nonpaleontological readers will forgive our
major manifestationManifestationManifestation may refer to any one of the following:* Manifestation of God, the prophets of the Bahá'í Faith* Avatar, manifestation of God in Hinduism...
. We are paleontologists, so we need
a name to contrast ourselves with all you folks who study
modern organisms in humanHumanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
or ecologicalEcologyEcology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
timeTimeTime is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
. You therefore become neontologists. We do recognize
the unbalanced and parochial nature of this dichotomousDichotomyA dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts, meaning it is a procedure in which a whole is divided into two parts...
division --
much like my grandmother's parsing of Homo sapiens into
the two categories of 'JewsJewsThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
' and 'non-Jews'.