Simpson, GeorgeGaylord
Simpson, GeorgeGaylord (1902–84)An American palaeontologist who supported the idea of ‘neo-Darwinian’ evolution, and initially fiercely opposed the theory of continental drift, basing his objections on his studies of fossil mammals, especially those of Madagascar. He proposed that the dispersion of species was caused by ‘sweepstake routes’. He was a leading authority on the palaeontology of South American mammals, discoverer of Hyracotherium (the ‘dawn horse’), and collaborated with Louis and Mary Leakey in their work on hominoid evolution. From 1936 he worked at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, eventually becoming chairman of its department of geology and palaeontology, and he was professor of vertebrate palaeontology first at Columbia University and later at Harvard. In 1970–82 he was a professor at the University of Arizona.
More From encyclopedia.com
George Gaylord Simpson , Simpson, George Gaylord
SIMPSON, GEORGE GAYLORD
paleontology, vertebrate paleontology.
Simpson was an empirical paleontologist specializing in mammal… Ernst Mayr , Ernst Mayr
Ernst Mayr
The German-born American evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr (born 1904) helped lead the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory.… Evolutionism , EVOLUTIONISM. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has been profoundly influential among scientists and others on both sides of the Atla… Henry Fairfield Osborn , Although Osborn is best remembered as the outspoken president of the American Museum of Natural History, one of his consuming scientific pursuits was… Evolution , The International Darwin Centennial Convention (Chicago 1959) defined evolution as an irreversible process of developmental change in time, which dur… Joseph Le Conte , LECONTE, JOSEPH
natural history, physiology, geology. For the original article on LeConte see DSB, vol. 8.
LeConte’s major contributions to science i…
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
Simpson, GeorgeGaylord