Björn Olof Lennartson Kurtén (19 November 1924 – 28 December 1988) was a Finnish vertebrate

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

, belonging to the Swedish-speaking minority of his country.

Early life and education

Kurtén was born in

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

Career

He was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

in paleontology at the University of Helsinki from 1972 up to his death in 1988. He also spent a year as lecturing guest professor at Harvard University in 1971. In ''Not from the Apes'' (1971) Kurtén argued that man's development has been separate from the apes since the Miocene, and that man did not descend from anthropoids, but rather the reverse: He was also the author of a series of books about modern man's encounter with

Neanderthals Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While ...

, such as '' Dance of the Tiger'' (1978, 1980). When asked what genre these works belonged in, Kurtén coined the term '' paleofiction'' to describe his oeuvre. The genre was popularized by Jean M. Auel in her

Earth's Children ''Earth's Children'' is a series of epic historical fiction (or more precisely, prehistorical fiction) novels written by Jean M. Auel set circa 30,000 years before the present day. There are six novels in the series. Although Auel had previous ...

series of books. He received several awards for his books popularizing science, among others the Kalinga Prize from UNESCO. In the 1980s, Kurtén also hosted a 6-part TV series about the ice age, co-produced by several Scandinavian TV channels.

Partial bibliography

* ''Pleistocene Mammals of Europe'' (Transaction Publishers, 1968; Routledge, 2017) *''Istiden'' (''The Ice Age'') (Forum, 1969) *''Not from the Apes'' (Pantheon, 1971) *''The Age of Mammals'' (Columbia University Press, NY, 1973) *''The Cave Bear Story: Life and Death of a Vanished Animal'' (Columbia University Press, NY, 1976) *''Den svarta tigern'' (1978) ('' Dance of the Tiger'', 1980) *''Pleistocene Mammals of North America'' (1980), with Elaine Anderson *''Mammutens rådare'' (1982) ('' Singletusk'') *''How to Deep-Freeze a Mammoth'' (1986) *''On Evolution and Fossil Mammals'' (Columbia University Press, 1988) *''De skuldlösa mördarna'' (1987) (''

The Innocent Assassins ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', Columbia University Press, 1991) *''Before the Indians'', Columbia University Press, 1988, softbound, 8 1/2 by 11" Ad *''Our Earliest Ancestors'' (Columbia University Press, 1993), Kurtén also published some fifty scientific works, two of them in collaboration with the Spanish paleontologist Miquel Crusafont Pairó.

References

External links

* 1924 births 1988 deaths Finnish paleontologists Writers of fiction set in prehistoric times Swedish-speaking Finns 20th-century novelists Finnish expatriates in the United States Kalinga Prize recipients {{Europe-tv-bio-stub