American paleontologist, Simpson, George Gaylord (1902 – 1984)

Simpson, George Gaylord is United States paleontologist, whose work did much to shape the postwar development of paleontology and its impact on evolutionary.

Simpson, born the son of lawyer on Chicago, Illinois, was educated at the University of Colorado and at Yale where he obtained his PhD in 1926, with a thesis on fossil mammals of the Mesozoic era.

The following year he joined the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

After the war, he was appointed professor of vertebra paleontology at Columbia University (1945 – 1959), during which time he contributed to the debate on the nature evolution, particularly in his books Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944) and The Major Features of Evolution (1953).

Simpson worked extensively on the taxonomy and paleontology of mammals his main contribution was his elucidation of the history of the early mammals in the late Mesozoic and the Paleocene and Eocene.

He also contributed to evolutionary theory with important books, such as The Meaning of Evolution (1949), The Major Features of Evolution (1953), This View of Life (1954) and others.

In 1959 Simpson was appointed Alexander Agassiz Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, a post he retained until his retirement 1970.

He was also professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona (1967 – 1982).
American paleontologist, Simpson, George Gaylord (1902 – 1984)