Scope

Paleontology is the study of past life in the context of the biosphere. The history of life is documented by a rich fossil record that provides not only a unique, deep time perspective to living organisms that inhabit our planet today, but also a first-hand test of hypotheses generated by the biological and earth sciences. Paleontology is the study not only of fossils, but also of what these indicators of past life can tell us about evolution, about ecologies of the past, even about our place and those of other organisms in the present and into the future, including via responses to climate and other changes. Thus, over the last two centuries paleontology has grown from a discovery and observational science into a highly interpretative and even predictive discipline.

As a highly interdisciplinary science, paleontology integrates various disciplines, including biology, geology, chemistry, physics - even anthropology and computer science - as we try to decipher the fragments of past life that are available for research. All aspects of paleontological research are welcome, including macroevolution, paleoecology, paleobiogeography, phylogenetics, and taphonomy, and all types of organisms (e.g., vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, and trace and micro-fossils) are covered. Further, we are interested in submissions of theoretical and data rich papers, and the entire spectrum in between.

Although we welcome submissions that are fairly parochial in focus and of interest to a limited segment of the paleontological community, we are particularly interested in receiving submissions that would be of broad interest to earth scientists, biologists, and even the general public. Our only criterion is excellence of research and potential for long term impact. We are gold standard open access and also fully online, and are not bound as tightly as print journals by the length of the manuscript, or the number and quality of the scientific illustrations.

Submission

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