(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1981) Brain, C. K.
Palaeontology has its roots in both the earth and life sciences. Its usefulness to geology
comes from the light which the understanding of fossils may throw on the stratigraphic relationships
of sediments, or the presence of economic deposits such as coal or oil. In biology,
the study of fossils has the same objectives as does the study of living animals or plants and
such objectives are generally reached in a series of steps which may be set out as follows.