The Emergence of Paleobiology

This chapter provides an historical overview of paleobiology, from the origin of the term itself through the emergence of a distinct set of paleobiological methods and questions in the 1950s and 1960s. It suggests that while paleobiology experienced an accelerated period of activity during the 1970s and 1980s, its roots were firmly established by the work of the previous generation of paleontologists, particularly by George Gaylord Simpson and Norman Newell. This chapter also mentions that it was in the 1980s that paleobiology was established as a mainstay in many university and museum departments.