THE TRANSFORMATION OF PALEONTOLOGY AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Abstract

Review of: Sepkoski, D., and M. Ruse 2009. The Paleobiologi-cal Revolution: Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology. University of Chicago Press. 568 pp., ISBN: 978-0-226-74861-0. Cloth. $65.00. In 1984 English geneticist John Maynard Smith summarized the state of affairs of paleontology and whether it had achieved sufficient epistemological status that it could be seated at the proverbial "high table" of evolutionary biology. The stimulus for this assessment was a series of Tanner lectures provided by Stephen J. Gould at Cambridge University that extended into current evolutionary theory the relevance of punctuated equilibrium and a hierarchical context for evolutionary levels of selection.