The use of sophisticated equipment in paleontology has increased greatly in the past decade. It is not at all unusual to find a paleontologist using scanning electron microscopes, mass spectrometers, and computers as a part of his daily routine. Yet one finds review papers that discuss applications of the computer to various branches of science but not of other kinds of equipment that are relatively new on the scene. The reason for this is that whereas most technological improvements have led to the acquisition of more and better data, the computer has permitted more thorough analysis of data already on hand. As a result, it has provided paleontologists and other scientists as well with a means of expanding their view of problems (Olson, 1970).
Applications of the computer in paleontology as well as in other branches of science have been most successful when they have taken advantage of the ways in which the computer works best—i.e., in manipulating large masses of data, in making...
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Kaesler, R.L. (1979). Computer applications in paleontology . In: Paleontology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31078-9_39
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