The role of paleontology in evolutionary biology between the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859 and the Evolutionary Synthesis of the 1940s (the post-Darwin, pre-Synthesis [PDPS] period) is frequently described as mostly misguided failure. However, a significant number of American and British PDPS invertebrate paleontologists of this period did devote considerable attention to evolution, and their evolutionary theories and conclusions were a good deal more diverse and nuanced than previous histories have suggested. This paper brings into focus a number of important but underrecognized aspects of the history of paleontology within the history of biology, including that PDPS paleontologists were not all as theoretically backward as they have been portrayed; that the post-Synthesis narrative of the history of evolution should be continually reevaluated, in part to decouple historical understanding from the agendas of authors who have used history to advance particular views of evolution; and that there is a much richer story to be told about the history of evolutionary biology in both the pre- and post-Synthesis eras.

中文翻译：

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美国和英国的无脊椎动物古生物学和进化思维，1860-1940

从 1859 年《物种起源》的出版到 1940 年代的进化综合（后达尔文，前综合 [PDPS] 时期），古生物学在进化生物学中的作用经常被描述为主要是误导性的失败。然而，这一时期的大量美国和英国 PDPS 无脊椎动物古生物学家确实对进化给予了相当多的关注，他们的进化理论和结论比以前的历史所表明的更加多样化和微妙。这篇论文聚焦了生物学史中古生物学史的一些重要但未被充分认识的方面，包括 PDPS 古生物学家在理论上并不像他们所描绘的那样落后；应该不断重新评估进化史的综合后叙述，部分是为了将历史理解与利用历史推进特定进化观点的作者的议程脱钩；关于合成前和合成后时代的进化生物学历史，还有更丰富的故事要讲。