George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American

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 ...

. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the

modern synthesis Modern synthesis or modern evolutionary synthesis refers to several perspectives on evolutionary biology, namely: * Modern synthesis (20th century), the term coined by Julian Huxley in 1942 to denote the synthesis between Mendelian genetics and s ...

, contributing '' Tempo and Mode in Evolution'' (1944), ''The Meaning of Evolution'' (1949) and ''The Major Features of Evolution'' (1953). He was an expert on

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s and their intercontinental migrations. Simpson was extraordinarily knowledgeable about

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

fossil mammals and fossil mammals of North and South America. He anticipated such concepts as

punctuated equilibrium In evolutionary biology, punctuated equilibrium (also called punctuated equilibria) is a Scientific theory, theory that proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record, the population will become stable, showing little evolution, evol ...

(in ''Tempo and Mode'') and dispelled the myth that the evolution of the horse was a linear process culminating in the modern '' Equus caballus''. He coined the word '' hypodigm'' in 1940, and published extensively on the

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of fossil and extant mammals. Simpson was influentially, and incorrectly, opposed to Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift, but accepted the

theory of plate tectonics Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...

(and continental drift) when the evidence became conclusive. He was Professor of

Zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and

Curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the Department of

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and Paleontology at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

from 1945 to 1959. He was Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

from 1959 to 1970, and a Professor of

Geoscience Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

s at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

from 1968 until his retirement in 1982.

Awards

In 1943 Simpson was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. For his work, ''Tempo and mode in evolution'', he was awarded the Academy's

Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. United States National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Gir ...

in 1944. He was awarded the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958. Simpson also received the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Darwin Medal The Darwin Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "distinction in evolution, biological diversity and developmental, population and organismal biology". In 1885, International Darwin Memorial Fund was transferred to the ...

'In recognition of his distinguished contributions to general evolutionary theory, based on a profound study of palaeontology, particularly of vertebrates,' in 1962. In 1966, Simpson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. At the

, Tucson, the Gould-Simpson Building was named in honor of Simpson and Minnesota geologist and polar explorer Lawrence M. Gould, who, like Simpson, also accepted an appointment as Professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona after his formal retirement. Simpson was noted for his work in the fields of

paleobiogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

and

animal evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

Views

In the 1960s, Simpson "rubbished the then-nascent science of

exobiology Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investig ...

, which concerned itself with life on places other than Earth, as a science without a subject". He was raised as a Christian but in his early teens became an

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

, nontheist, and philosophical naturalist.

Books

* ''Attending marvels'' (1931)
''Quantitative Zoology''
(1939) * '' Tempo and Mode in Evolution'' (1944) * ''The Principles of Classification and A Classification of Mammals (1945)
''The Meaning of Evolution''
(1949, 1951) * ''Horses'' (1951) * ''Evolution and Geography'' (1953) * ''The Major Features of Evolution'' (1953) * ''Life: An Introduction to Biology'' (1957) * ''Quantitative Zoology'' (1960) * ''Principles of Animal Taxonomy'' (1961) * ''This View of Life'' (1964) * ''The Geography of Evolution'' (1965) * ''Penguins'' (1976) * ''Concession to the Improbable'' (1978) (an autobiography) * ''Fossils and the History Of Life'' (1983) * ''Splendid Isolation'' (1980) * ''The Dechronization of Sam Magruder'' (posthumously published novella, 1996)

References

External links

George Gaylord Simpson
— full and comprehensive biography by L. F. Laporte

— biographical sketch from The Stephen Jay Gould Archive

— a short biography from the PBS ''Evolution'' website
George Gaylord Simpson Papers, American Philosophical Society.George Gaylord Simpson
— Open Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, George Gaylord 1902 births 1984 deaths Columbia University faculty Critics of creationism Critics of cryptozoology Critics of Lamarckism Harvard University staff University of Arizona faculty American former Christians American agnostics American paleontologists American mammalogists National Medal of Science laureates Penrose Medal winners Foreign Members of the Royal Society People associated with the American Museum of Natural History Yale University alumni 20th-century American zoologists

Awards

Views

Books

See also

References

Further reading

External links