Paleopedology

Paleopedology (palaeopedology in the United Kingdom) is the discipline that studies soils of past geological eras, from quite recent (Quaternary) to the earliest periods of the Earth's history. Paleopedology can be seen either as a branch of soil science (pedology) or of paleontology, since the methods it uses are in many ways a well-defined combination of the two disciplines.

Paleopedology's earliest developments arose from observations in Scotland circa 1795 whereby it was found that some soils in cliffs appeared to be remains of a former exposed land surface. During the nineteenth century there were many other finds of former soils throughout Europe and North America. However, most of this was only found in the search for animal and/or plant fossils and it was not until soil science first developed that buried soils of past geological ages were considered of any value.

It was only when the first relationships between soils and climate were observed in the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan that there was any interest in applying the finds of former soils to past ecosystems. This occurred because, by the 1920s, some soils in Russia had been found by K.D. Glinka that did not fit with present climates and were seen as relic of warmer climates in the past.

Eugene W. Hilgard, in 1892, had related soil and climate in the United States in the same manner, and by the 1950s analysis of Quaternary stratigraphy to monitor recent environmental changes in the northern hemisphere had become firmly established. These developments have allowed soil fossils to be classified according to USDA soil taxonomy quite easily with all recent soils. Interest in earlier soil fossils was much slower to grow, but has steadily developed since the 1960s owing to the development of such techniques as X-ray diffraction which permit their classification. This has allowed many developments in paleoecology and paleogeography to take place because the soils' chemistry can provide a good deal of evidence as to how life moved onto land during the Paleozoic.

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