Elisabeth S. Vrba (born 17 May 1942) is a

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 fossi ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

who developed the

turnover-pulse hypothesis The turnover-pulse hypothesis, formulated by paleontologist Elisabeth Vrba, suggests that major changes to the climate or ecosystem often result in a period of rapid extinction and high turnover of new species (a "pulse") across multiple different ...

Education

Vrba earned her Ph.D. in Zoology and Palaeontology at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, in 1974. Vrba studied zoology and mathematical statistics at the University of Cape Town to earn her undergraduate degree. She remained there for doctoral study in zoology and paleontology to earn her Ph.D. After receiving her doctorate, Vrba conducted her early research on African fossil records over the last several million years, tracking the sequence of fossils from analyzing the geological strata and analyzing the morphology of the fossils. She was the chief assistant to

Charles Kimberlin Brain Charles Kimberlin Brain, also known as C. K. "Bob" Brain (born 7 May 1931, in Southern Rhodesia, now modern Harare, Zimbabwe), is a South African paleontologist who has studied and taught African cave taphonomy for more than fifty years. Biogr ...

during his directorship of the

Transvaal Museum The Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, formerly the Transvaal Museum, is a natural history museum situated in Pretoria, South Africa. It is located on Paul Kruger Street, between Visagie and Minnaar Streets, opposite the Pretoria City Ha ...

Career

She has been a faculty member at the Department of Geology & Geophysics,

, since the early 1980s. She is well known for developing the

, as well as coining the word

exaptation Exaptation and the related term co-option describe a shift in the function of a trait during evolution. For example, a trait can evolve because it served one particular function, but subsequently it may come to serve another. Exaptations are common ...

with colleague

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould sp ...

. Her specific interest is in the Family Bovidae (

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...

s, etc.), but her students are studying a wide range of species.

Innovations

Vrba and colleague

are renowned for their theory of ''

''. Stemming from

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's research on genetic traits developed during adaptation in evolution, Vrba and Gould's research suggested that the historical origin of a genetic trait is not always reflective of its contemporary function. Genetic adaptations may take on new functions and may serve a species a different purpose further on in evolution. Gould died in 2002, but their theory has been widely referenced in recent years in popular science writing. Vrba and Gould's theory has also been criticized in recent years by scholars who assert that genetic traits are pressured by multiple factors, making it challenging to determine when adaptation or exaptation is at play. Vrba also constructed the turnover-pulse hypothesis, a significant addition to

macroevolution Macroevolution usually means the evolution of large-scale structures and traits that go significantly beyond the intraspecific variation found in microevolution (including speciation). In other words, macroevolution is the evolution of taxa abov ...

ary theory.

Selected publications

* Gould, S. J. and E. S. Vrba. (1982)
"Exaptation—a missing term in the science of form."
''Paleobiology'' 8: 4-15. *Katherine Macinnes. "Evolving Vocabulary: the rise and fall of 'exaptation'" ''International Innovation'', September 18, 2015
https://web.archive.org/web/20160825224345/http://www.internationalinnovation.com/evolving-vocabulary-the-rise-and-fall-of-exaptation/.
*Lewis, R. "Surveying the Genomic Landscape of Modern Mammals," DNA Science Blog, January 29, 2015
http://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/2015/01/29/probing-genomic-landscape-modern-mammals/.
*Michael Garfield. "Exaptation of the Guitar" ''Guitar International'', September 17, 2010
https://web.archive.org/web/20130622042448/http://guitarinternational.com/2010/09/17/exaptation-of-the-guitar/.
*Rozzi, Roberto. "Elisabeth Vrba , TrowelBlazers." ''trowelblazers.com''. 2014. Accessed October 17, 2015. http://trowelblazers.com/elisabeth-vrba/. *Shapiro, J. "More Evidence on the Real Nature of Evolutionary DNA Change," ''Huffington Post, The Blog'', June 1, 2012

*Shell, E. R. (1999). ttp://discovermagazine.com/1993/may/wavesofcreation214/ "Waves of Creation."''Discover'' 14 (May): 54-61. *Vrba, E. S. and Gould, S. J. (1986). "The hierarchical expansion of sorting and selection." ''Paleobiology''. 12 (2): 217-228. *Vrba, E. S. (1993)
"The Pulse That Produced Us."
''Natural History'' 102 (5) 47-51.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vrba, Elisabeth S. 1942 births Living people American paleontologists Paleozoologists Women paleontologists American taxonomists Women taxonomists Yale University faculty University of Cape Town alumni 20th-century American zoologists 21st-century American zoologists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists American women academics