جوانب من علم الإحاثة)‎ Paleontology في التراث العلمي العربي الإسلامي

Abstract EN

Man realized the reality of fossils since ancient times (the ancient Indian civilization and the Greek civilization), then this awareness and awareness faded in the Western world with time, and the first scientific ideas about the origins of fossils atrophied and retreated; Like many concepts of science related to the Earth and its development; The scientific debate on the issue did not return to the European arena, except in the middle of the sixteenth century AD, when ideas began to crystallize again, right or close to correctness in this regard In this period of scientific decline in the West, the Arab-Islamic civilization witnessed remarkable prosperity and progress in several scientific fields, which leads us to question the interest of the scholars of this rising civilization in the subject and the extent of research and broadcasting in it? And about the explanations? they gave for this phenomenon Arab and Muslim scholars (such as Ibn Sina, Al-Biruni, Abu Hamid Al-Andalusi and others) have noticed the presence of remains and traces of ancient animal or plant species (fossils), which have been fossilized within layers of the earth's rocks and have given them great attention and increasing care.

Al-Jahiz was the first to point out its significance.

They also recorded their successive observations in their books, without these observations prompting the establishment of an independent science of fossils or ancient biology (paleontology), and defining a clear philosophy for it.

However, through these remnants and relics, they were able to extract a set of scientific: data, perhaps the most important of which are : Their conclusion is the movement of certain parts of the land that were in previous times submerged in sea water and its transformation into land after the sea was exposed.

Emphasizing that this exposure is happening gradually and that these processes require very long periods of time, and our age is not enough to control them (awareness of the extension of geological time and the long life of the Earth).

Authorizing the simultaneous fossilization of animals and plants and the solidification of sedimentary rocks or the crystallization of minerals.

Distinguishing between the preserved crystallized or mineralized remains and the imprinted traces that remain after the decay of animal or plant organs.

Realizing that fossilization, as it occurs in a marine sedimentary medium, may occur in a continental sedimentary medium; lived.

Inference from fossils on the environmental environment in which fossilized animals or plants The importance of the process of burial and burial, in relation to the preservation of fossilized organisms and the preservation of their traces.

Indicating the existence of vertebrate fossils of an extinct type of mammal from the ancestors of elephants (the mammoth elephant).

Knowledge of the fossilization of plant and animal species in amber or electrolytes (Sandros gum).

Talking about the connection of the ranks of assets and the advancement of species in order to reach perfection within the rank.

With the belief of some contemporary researchers that Ibn Khaldun says to move from one level to the next, which Al-Biruni clearly rejects.

It should be noted the explicit presence of Ibn Sina for the theory of resurrections and their relationship to the emergence of species, a theory that was mentioned by the French scientist Georges Cuvier.