Palaeontology incorporates several, overlapping, areas, the principal of which are: Systematic palaeontology, or taxonomy, that is, the documentation, description and classification of new species and higher-level taxa of fossils Phylogenetics, that is, the analysis and interpretation of their evolutionary relationships Palaeobiology, that is, the documentation, analysis and interpretation of their relationships to evolving earth and life processes and environments, and their application to the elucidation thereof Biostratigraphy, that is, the documentation, analysis and interpretation of their ordered succession, their relationships to evolving earth and life history, and their application to the elucidation thereof.