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Evolutionary Paleontology and the Fossil Record: A Historical Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2017

David Sepkoski
David Sepkoski*
Affiliation:
History Department University of North Carolina, Wilmington Wilmington, NC 28403
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Abstract

From the beginning of paleontology's existence as a distinct professional community in the early 20th century, paleontologists have argued about ‘where’ the discipline fits among the natural sciences. Long told that paleontologists ought to be content with a subsidiary role as mere documenters of evolutionary change or as stratigraphical ‘handmaidens' to geology, over the past hundred years many paleontologists have actively resisted restrictive pigeonholing and attempted to establish paleontology as an autonomous discipline with status equal to its cousins biology and geology. This essay will survey some of the efforts at paleontological ‘activism’ over the past century, focusing particularly on institutional placement, intellectual contributions, and the use of arguments about the adequacy of the fossil record to bolster claims for disciplinary status.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Paleontological Society Papers , Volume 14: From Evolution to Geobiology: Research Questions Driving Paleontology at the Start of a New Century , October 2008 , pp. 41 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © by the Paleontological Society 

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