Archaeologists, Anthropologists, and Paleontologists

Archaeologists work like detectives to uncover the story of prehistoric peoples. Archaeology is a branch of anthropology that seeks to document and explain connections, changes, similarities and differences among human cultures. Archaeologists work with the material remains of cultures, past and present. These provide the only source of information available for past non-literate societies. They also increase the written sources for historical and up to date groups.

Scientists called anthropologists study the culture. Anthropology is the classification and analysis of humans and their society, descriptively, culturally, historically, and physically. Its unique contribution to studying the bonds of human social relations has been the distinctive concept of culture. It has also differed from other sciences concerned with human social behavior (especially sociology) in its emphasis on data from non-literate peoples and archaeological exploration. Anthropology is divided primarily into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology. Physical anthropology focuses basically on the problems of human evolution, including human paleontology and the study of race and of body build or constitution. Cultural anthropology includes archaeology, which studies the material remains of prehistoric and extinct cultures.

Paleontology is the science of the life of past geologic periods based on fossil remains. Knowledge of the existence of fossils dates back at least to the ancient Greeks. Because few fossils are found in rock older than the late Precambrian era, paleontology is generally concerned with only the past six hundred million years. Paleontology deals with early forms of life. In addition, fossil evidence is often used for the concern of the ages of rock strata. Human fossils often consist of small fragments of teeth, skulls, or other bones. Paleontologists use complex techniques to date ancient fossil remains and rocks. Archaeologists, anthropologists, paleontologists, and other scientists work as a team to make new discoveries about how prehistoric people lived.