Fossils of the Carpathian Region

Epilogue

429 Although the Earth is more than 4 billion years old, humans are the first creatures to evolve the ability to recognize the past. Because of this unique ability, it seems important to us to search and to understand our environment and its past history. While working on this comprehensive book, we realized again and again that some of the unique geological successions in the Carpathian Basin document the past history of the Earth and life extremely richly—and that the intellectual achievements of earlier researchers, who discovered Carpathian Basin fossils and understood their true nature, provide good examples for later generations of paleontologists . Although many important periods of Earth history and environments are not documented by rocks in the Carpathian Basin, a huge number of important fossils are known and have been described. These fossils can tell us about both the history of the Carpathian Basin and of our planet, and can also teach us humility. Anyone who is able to glimpse the passage of time evidenced by fossils during theirshortlifespanisalsoabletocatchaglimpseofeternity. Epilogue This page intentionally left blank ...