George Gaylord Simpson

George Gaylord Simpson
Simpson in 1965
Born	(1902-06-16)June 16, 1902 Chicago, Illinois
Died	Fresno, California
Nationality	American
Fields	Paleontology
Institutions	Columbia University
Alma mater	University of Colorado Yale University, B.A., Ph.D.
Doctoral advisor	Richard Swann Lull
Known for	Modern synthesis; quantum evolution
Notable awards	Mary Clark Thompson Medal (1943) Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1944) Penrose Medal (1952) Darwin-Wallace Medal (1958) Darwin Medal (1962) Linnean Medal (1962) National Medal of Science (1965) Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1965) Paleontological Society Medal (1973) Fellow of the Royal Society

George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the modern evolutionary synthesis, 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 mammals and their intercontinental migrations. He anticipated such concepts as punctuated equilibrium (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 of fossil and extant mammals. Simpson was influentially, and incorrectly, opposed to Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift.

He was Professor of Zoology at Columbia University, and Curator of the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History from 1945 to 1959. He was Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University from 1959 to 1970, and a Professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona until his retirement in 1982.

Awards

In 1943 Simpson was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. For his work, Tempo and mode in evolution, he was awarded the Academy's Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal in 1944. He was awarded the Linnean Society of London's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958. Simpson also received the Royal Society's Darwin Medal 'In recognition of his distinguished contributions to general evolutionary theory, based on a profound study of palaeontology, particularly of vertebrates,' in 1962.

At the University of Arizona, Tucson, the Gould-Simpson Building was named for Arizona geologist Lawrence M. Gould and Simpson. Simpson was noted for his work in the field of paleogeography and continental evolution relationships.

Views

In the 1960s, Simpson "rubbished the then-nascent science of exobiology, which concerned itself with life on places other than Earth, as a science without a subject".

He was raised as a Christian but later became an agnostic.

Books

• Attending marvels (1931)
• Tempo and mode in evolution (1944)
• The meaning of evolution (1949)
• 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)

See also

• Annie Montague Alexander, who helped finance some of his early work

External links

• George Gaylord Simpson — full and comprehensive biography by L. F. Laporte
• George Gaylord Simpson — biographical sketch from The Stephen Jay Gould Archive
• George Gaylord Simpson — a short biography from the PBS Evolution website
• George Gaylord Simpson Papers, American Philosophical Society.
• George Gaylord Simpson — Open Library