Paleontological observations date back to at least the 6th century BC.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by multiple independent sources including Wikipedia's Timeline of Paleontology, History of Paleontology, and History Uncovered, all attributing early fossil observations to Xenophanes of Colophon (~570-480 BC). [tier=unverified indep_score=0.375 clusters=1 claim_tier=notable] [harvest 2026-09-15: +4 source(s) on new hosts; tier unverified->silver indep=0.9 clusters=5] [kind-backfill 2026-09-15: kind=empirical eligibility=high]
Sources
- Paleontology (wikipedia)
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315716482_2500_Years_of_Palaeoecology_A_Note_on_the_Work_of_Xenophanes_of_Colophon_Circa_570-475_BCE (corroboration)
- https://iep.utm.edu/xenoph/ (corroboration)
- https://history-uncovered.com/articles/xenophanes-the-philosopher-who-discovered-deep-time-with-seashells (corroboration)
- https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/ancient.html (corroboration)
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/xenophanes/ (corroboration)