Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology was founded in 1940 for individuals with an interest in vertebrate paleontology. SVP (as it is known to its members) now has almost 2,000 members. The Society's website states that SVP "is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes. The object of the Society is to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology and to serve the common interests and facilitate the cooperation of all persons concerned with the history, evolution, comparative anatomy, and taxonomy of vertebrate animals, as well as field occurrence, collection, and study of fossil vertebrates and the stratigraphy of the beds in which they are found." SVP is also concerned with the conservation and preservation of fossil sites. SVP publications include The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, The SVP Memoir Series, The News Bulletin, The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates, and most recently Palaeontologia Electronica.

Public policies
SVP believes that, "Vertebrate Fossils are significant nonrenewable paleontological resources that are afforded protection by federal, state and local environmental laws and guidelines". SVP feels that "common fossils" (e.g. invertebrate fossils or petrified wood) can be collected by both amateur and professional paleontologists. "Rare" fossils (e.g. most vertebrate material and exceptional invertebrate fossils, etc.) should only be collected by professional paleontologist and should not be "exploited" by commercial collectors. As such, the Society works to protect fossils with laws on public land (such as BLM lands). Paleontological Resources Preservation Act. S. 546 and H. R. 2416 were introduced in the US Congress with SVP's full support. Many amateur fossil collectors and dealers believe that such policies are a breach of their rights. The argument has also been put forth that there are too few professional paleontologists to collect and preserve fossils currently exposed to the elements, and that it is therefore essential that private citizens be allowed to collect them for the sake of their preservation.

According to the ethics by-law of SVP, "The barter, sale, or purchase of scientifically significant vertebrate fossils is not condoned, unless it brings them into or keeps them within a public trust." Commercial collectors are thus not generally official SVP members.

SVP feels that "The fossil record of vertebrates unequivocally supports the hypothesis that vertebrates have evolved through time" and that evolution is "the central organizing principle of biology, understood as descent with modification" and is important to geology as well. The Society believes only scientifically supported evolutionary theory should be taught in school and also believe that creationism and intelligent design have no place in scientific curriculum. To this end, SVP has set up programs to train educators in teaching evolution and support teachers who opposing those who desire to bring intelligent design into the classroom.

Publications
The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (or JVP) is the Society's flagship publication. JVP was founded in 1980 at the University of Oklahoma and continued in 1984 by SVP. JVP contains original contributions on all aspects of the vertebrate paleontology; including vertebrate origins, evolution, functional morphology, taxonomy, biostratigraphy, paleoecology, paleobiogeography, and paleoanthropology. The SVP Memoir Series publishes monographic papers that are longer than JVP articles. The News Bulletin has been published for SVP since its founding. The News Bulletin contains minutes of annual business meetings, news from members around the world, address changes, new members, job advertisements, and obituaries. The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates is an index for publications on all subjects related to vertebrate paleontology. Palaeontologia Electronica is the world's first electronic journal of paleontology and is sponsored in part by SVP.

Annual meetings
The 66th annual meeting of SVP was held in Ottawa, Ontario from October 18–21, 2006. The 67th annual meeting of SVP was held in Austin, Texas, USA from October 17–20, 2007.

Future meetings will be held as follows:
 * 68th meeting, Oct. 15-18, 2008, Cleveland, Ohio, USA