Abstract
The paleontologist is familiar with “Deep Time”, a concept which emerged during the late eighteenth century, slowly matured, but did not gain general recognition until the end of the twentieth century; although it did create a silent but nevertheless significant revolution in the layman’s mind. Being simultaneously a biologist and a geologist, the paleontologist has to deal with issues of Time which, though interrelated, fundamentally differ from those of the current biologist’s work. To this extent, the paleontologist may be understood as a paleobiologist: a specialized biologist who studies biological issues within Deep Time. Nevertheless, differences in time scope introduce fundamental discrepancies, especially in the ways that scientific evidence can be demonstrated and, accordingly, in the working and expression of scientific results. All this tends to set the paleobiologist apart psychologically from the current mainstream biologist, whose work is now too often pervaded by urgent biomedical issues. Conversely, the paleobiologist is familiar with general evolutionary issues which now tend to pervade “short time biology”, as evidenced by current concerns with, for example, bacterial evolution and the biodiversity crisis.
“… Pur di Tempo si breve
voi l’aurora, e non il fine…”
Disinganno in
Cardinale Benedetto Pamphilij ‘s libretto of G.F. Haendel’s “Il triumpho del Tempo e del Disinganno” (1707)
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Notes
- 1.
According to Martin Rudwick (1992) the expression “Deep Time ” appears to have been forged in English by a journalist, John Mc Phee, in a book on the geology of Nevada and Utah : Bassin and Range (1981), before it was popularized by Gould and Rudwick. I thank Dr. Claudine Cohen (EHESS, Paris) to have brought this reference to my knowledge.
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Acknowledgments
I thank Christophe Bouton and Philippe Huneman who offered me the possibility to submit an essay in the framework of the written version of the Symposium on Time they organized at the Bordeaux Montaigne University in September 2012. Discussions, over the years, on Time and Time-related matters with Jean Gayon (Paris 1 University), Philippe Taquet and Pascal Tassy (MNHN, Paris), Hervé Le Guyader (UPMC, Paris), the members of the GEPS (groupe d’étude pratique de squelettochronologie, Paris 7 University), Kevin Padian (U of C, Berkeley), Claudine Cohen (EHESS, Paris) and the late Stephen Jay Gould (Harvard University) have been illuminating experiences. I thank Arlène Thiel (Paris) and Adam Hocker for suggestions and revision of the English text.
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de Ricqlès, A.J. (2017). The Biologist’s Time and Deep Time: Essay on the Psychology of the Paleobiologist. In: Bouton, C., Huneman, P. (eds) Time of Nature and the Nature of Time. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 326. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53725-2_11
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