Statement on Evolution - Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology was founded in 1940 and now has over 2300 members, which includes professionals, students, artists, preparators, and others interested in vertebrate paleontology. They have released the following statement regarding their views on education and evolution:

SVP and Education.
Fossils pose questions as soon as they’re discovered. This is as true now as it was when the very first were picked up, and no one knew what they were. The effort to answer questions posed by fossils and to develop better methods for investigating these questions, has been inextricably entwined with the development of science itself for centuries. Today, the number of fossils found and their accessibility through museums and the media create educational opportunities at every turn.Vertebrate paleontology is exciting science, linked to geology, anatomy, genetics, embryology, ecology … the list goes on. The public’s understanding of science, how science works, its achievements and its limits, is in need of major help, and vertebrate paleontology provides many opportunities to educate about the processes of science. Most importantly, vertebrate paleontology is an evolutionary science, and while the study of evolution in the nation’s public schools is still under attack in the 21st century, vertebrate paleontologists employ evolutionary science every day in the their work. The position of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology regarding the teaching of evolution is clear:

On the Teaching of Evolution
The fossil record of vertebrates unequivocally supports the hypothesis that vertebrates have evolved through time, from their first records in the early Paleozoic Era about 500 million years ago to the great diversity we see in the world today. The hypothesis has been strengthened by so many independent observations of fossil sequences that it has come to be regarded as a confirmed fact, as certain as the drift of continents through time or the lawful operation of gravity. Paleontology relies for its evidence on two different but historically related fields, biology and geology. Evolution is the central organizing principle of biology, understood as descent with modification. Evolution is equally basic to geology, because the patterns of rock formations, geomorphology, and fossil distributions in the world make no sense without the underlying process of change through time. Sometimes this change has been gradual, and sometimes it has been characterized by violent upheaval. These processes can be seen on the Earth today in the forms of earthquakes, volcanoes, and other tectonic phenomena. Vertebrates have also evolved at a variety of rates, some apparently gradual, and some apparently rapidly. Although the fossil record is not complete, and our knowledge of evolution will always be less than entire, the evidence for the progressive replacement of fossil forms has been adequate to support the theory of evolution for over 150 years, well before genetic mechanisms of evolutionary change were understood. Paleontologists may dispute, on the basis of the available evidence, the tempo and mode of evolution in a particular group at a particular time, but they do not argue about whether evolution took place: that is a fact.

Read the complete statement here.

(Photo by Adrian Thysse, from the Royal Alberta Museum)