The Paleobiological Revolution: Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology

Published by University of Chicago Press 2009

The Paleobiological Revolution

Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology

Edited by: David Sepkoski and Michael Ruse

https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226748597

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Paleobiological Revolution chronicles the incredible ascendance of the once-maligned science of paleontology to the vanguard of a field. With the establishment of the modern synthesis in the 1940s and the pioneering work of George Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr, and Theodosius Dobzhansky, as well as the subsequent efforts of Stephen Jay Gould, David Raup, and James Valentine, paleontology became embedded in biology and emerged as paleobiology, a first-rate discipline central to evolutionary studies. Pairing contributions from some of the leading actors of the transformation with overviews from historians and philosophers of science, the essays here capture the excitement of the seismic changes in the discipline. In so doing, David Sepkoski and Michael Ruse harness the energy of the past to call for further study of the conceptual development of modern paleobiology.

Author / Editor information

David Sepkoski is a senior research scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. He is the author of Rereading the Fossil Record: The Growth of Paleobiology as an Evolutionary Discipline, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Michael Ruse is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy and director of the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science at Florida State University. He is the author or editor of nearly thirty books, including The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

“The utter transformation of paleontology over the past forty years is too often viewed as either obvious and inevitable (by its enthusiasts), or misguided and unimportant (by its critics). Both of these extreme views could be avoided by a greater familiarity with the history of this revolution, which is unfortunately viewed by most professionals as of merely antiquarian interest, and this sense has been passed on to our students. The varied chapters in this fine volume provide an excellent antidote to this situation. Every paleontologist, and especially every graduate student, should read this book!"

— Warren Allmon, Cornell University

“Sepkoski and Ruse have assembled a wonderfully rich collection of essays that looks at diverse aspects of current science and provides sophisticated reflection on leading actors, probing historical and philosophical analyses, and important interpretations by the contributors. This is an important contribution to our understanding of scientific change generally as well as paleobiology and evolution specifically.”

— Jane Maienschein, Arizona State University

“Paleontologists are indeed back at the high table of evolutionary theorists, as this splendid book vividly demonstrates. With its mix of retrospective reviews and analyses of recent developments, the book gives us rich materials for evaluating what surely deserves to be called a scientific revolution. As a paleontologist, back in the 1960s I was excited by the first stirrings of the new paleobiology; now, as a historian, I'm delighted to see such a fine volume on what it has since become, and how it got there.”

— Martin Rudwick, Research Associate, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge and Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, San Diego

“Tom Schopf elevated the term paleobiology to new heights when he assembled his 1972 book Models in Paleobiology and spearheaded the founding of the journal Paleobiology—a journal, I am happy to say, that is read by many who do not work directly with fossils. If there is still some distance to go before paleobiology is fully integrated with evolutionary theory, the importance of the fossil record in understanding—not only the course of evolution, but also its pulse and pace, and even some of its mechanics—is nonetheless undeniable. The twenty-six papers in this volume probe the early days of this resurgence, and capture some of the excitement rippling through the field as paleontologists rediscovered the powerful evolutionary implications of their data.”

— Niles Eldredge, Division of Paleontology, The American Museum of Natural History

“Sepkoski and Ruse’s volume opens up the door to a long-neglected area in the history of evolutionary biology, one that began with Darwin and after a long period of eclipse has come back to illuminate a wide variety of macro- and microevolutionary processes.”

— Garland E. Allen, Washington University

“The twenty-six scholarly essays in The Paleobiological Revolution document and celebrate the rise of paleobiology—paleontology as a biological science—which established the study of the fossil record as a unique contributor to evolutionary biology. Fossils became considered as once-living organisms with real physiologies and ecologies, populating ancient environments and forming ecosystems that may have no close modern analogs. . . . In this volume we find the scientific bones of the paleobiology revolution carefully examined both by historians of science and as personal accounts from many of those who played a part in shaping the transformation. Together they tell the tale, heralded by John Maynard Smith, of the return of paleontologists to the ‘high table’ of evolutionary biology.”

— Rachel Wood, Science

"This invaluable volume – a must read for anyone interested in evolutionary theory or twentieth century biology and paleontology – may be the first word on the history of the paleobiological revolution, but it is certainly not the last."

— Paul D. Brinkman, Journal of the History of Biology

“A stimulating and eminently readable, historical account of the revolution in paleontology and the emergence of the field that became known as paleobiology.”

— J. Thompson, Evolution

“This insightful volume should serve as a foundation for future work in the largely unexplored realm of history and philosophy of paleontology.”

— Keynyn Brysse, Isis

Topics

General Interest

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction. Paleontology at the High Table David Sepkoski and Michael Ruse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Major Innovations in Paleobiology
1. The Emergence of Paleobiology David Sepkoski Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. The Fossil Record: Biological or Geological Signal? Michael J. Benton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
3. Biogeography and Evolution in the Early Paleozoic Richard A. Fortey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
4. The Discovery of Conodont Anatomy and Its Importance for Understanding the Early History of Vertebrates Richard J. Aldridge and Derek E. G. Briggs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
5. Emergence of Precambrian Paleobiology: A New Field of Science J. William Schopf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
6. Dinosaurs at the Table John R. Horner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
7. Ladders, Bushes, Punctuations, and Clades: Hominid Paleobiology in the Late Twentieth Century Tim D. White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
8. Punctuated Equilibria and Speciation: What Does It Mean to Be a Darwinian? Patricia Princehouse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
9. Molecular Evolution vis- à- vis Paleontology Francisco J. Ayala Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Part II. The Historical and Conceptual Significance of Recent Paleontology
10. Beyond Detective Work: Empirical Testing in Paleontology Derek Turner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
11. Taxic Paleobiology and the Pursuit of a Unifi ed Evolutionary Theory Todd A. Grantham Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
12. Ideas in Dinosaur Paleontology: Resonating to Social and Political Context David E. Fastovsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
13. Reg Sprigg and the Discovery of the Ediacara Fauna in South Australia: Its Approach to the High Table Susan Turner and David Oldroyd Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
14. The Morphological Tradition in German Paleontology: Otto Jaekel, Walter Zimmermann, and Otto Schindewolf Manfred D. Laubichler and Karl J. Niklas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
15. “Radical” or “Conservative”? The Origin and Early Reception of Punctuated Equilibrium David Sepkoski Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
16. The Shape of Evolution: The MBL Model and Clade Shape John Huss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	326
17. Ritual Patricide: Why Stephen Jay Gould Assassinated George Gaylord Simpson Joe Cain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	346
18. The Consensus That Changed the Paleobiological World Arnold I. Miller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	364
Part III. Reflections on Recent Paleobiology
19. The Infusion of Biology into Paleontological Research James W. Valentine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	385
20. From Empirical Paleoecology to Evolutionary Paleobiology: A Personal Journey Richard Bambach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	398
21. Intellectual Evolution across an Academic Landscape Rebecca Z. German Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	416
22. The Problem of Punctuational Speciation and Trends in the Fossil Record Anthony Hallam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	423
23. Punctuated Equilibrium versus Community Evolution Arthur J. Boucot Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433
24. An Interview with David M. Raup David Sepkoski and David M. Raup Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	459
25. Paleontology in the Twenty- first Century David Jablonski Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	471
26. Punctuations and Paradigms: Has Paleobiology Been through a Paradigm Shift? Michael Ruse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	518
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	529
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	537

Language: English
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 584
Illustrations
- Other: 29 halftones, 13 line drawings, 6 tables
Keywords: paleontology; paleobiology; fossils; james valentine; david raup; stephen jay gould; theodosius dobzhansky; ernst mayr; george gaylord simpson; early paleozoic; biogeography; conodont anatomy; vertebrates; hominids; dinosaurs; speciation; punctuated equilibria; unified evolutionary theory; reg sprigg; australia; paleoecology; community evolution; nonfiction; science

eBook

Published: October 15, 2009
ISBN: 9780226748597