Analysis of the use of Paleontology elements in high school biology textbooks

Analysis of paleontological contents of textbooks are important so that educators can get to know the reality of the theme's dissemination and obtain information for choosing the best Biology materials. Thus, this work aimed to analyze the use of elements of Paleontology in High School, using as a subsidy Didactic Collections of Biology approved in the PNLD (2018-2020). Three collections of High School Biology were chosen, and each volume was individually evaluated by observing the presence or absence of ten elements related to Paleontology, grouped into basic and broad themes, identifying the total number of pages in which the thematic contents are covered in texts, figures and activities. The results showed that the Didactic Collection 1 (7.3%) is the one with the largest number of pages in which the elements that make up the paleontological themes are addressed, followed by the Didactic Collection 3 (5.3%) and Didactic Collection 2 (4.9%). It is recommended that authors of Biology books for high school take greater care in the use of exact definitions, updating and expanding textual, illustrative and evaluative content, in addition to articulating the fossils with other areas such as Zoology, Botany and Biotechnology, the latter related to current issues of Molecular Paleontology