A palaeoenvironment is the past environment of an area during a given period of its history.
David John Stewart has written: 'A study of the pseudomonads responsible for \\' 'The sedimentology and palaeoenvironment of the wealden group of the Isle of Wight, southern England. 1978'
The main principle linked to the palaeoenvironment of the Earth (ie the Earths past) is called the principle of uniformitarianism: "The present is the key to the past" This means that all processes which occur on Earth at the present day, ie erosion, transportation, deposition, weathering, metamorphism etc. also occured at any point in the Earth's history in exactly the same way. Hope this helps :)