乔治·盖洛德·辛普森1902—1984

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 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. Simpson was extraordinarily knowledgeable about Mesozoic fossil mammals and fossil mammals of North and South America. 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, but accepted the theory of plate tectonics (and continental drift) when the evidence became conclusive.

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 from 1968 until his retirement in 1982.

Early life and education

George Gaylord Simpson was born on June 16, 1902 in Chicago to Helen J. (nee Kinney) and attorney Joseph A. Simpson, with two older sisters, Margaret and Martha. His mother was the daughter of missionaries and had attended Oberlin College. As an infant, Simpson's family moved to Denver, Colorado so that his father could purse land speculation and mining. He grew up in the Capitol Heights neighborhood and spent much of his time outdoors exploring the Rocky Mountain region, but was often unhealthy and plagued by a eye condition that made it difficult to participate in activities like sports.

Military service

Simpson commissioned into the United States Army in 1942 as an intelligence officer. Simpson stunned his superiors when he completed a six week training course in intelligence methods in a single week. He went on to serve in the North African and Italian campaigns of World War II.

In one notable incident, Simpson's was seen by General George S. Patton sporting his signature goatee; Patton ordered him to shave it off. Simpson refused, not being within Patton's chain of command and working for the intelligence branch.

He was discharged in 1944 after contracting severe hepatitis at the rank of Major. Simpson earned two Bronze Stars over the course of his service in World War II.

Awards and honors

Simpson was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1936 and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1941. 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 elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1948. He was awarded the Linnean Society of London's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958.

Views

In his 1944 magnum opus Tempo and Mode in Evolution, Simpson placed significant emphasis on quantum evolution as a major component explaining the morphological change seen in the fossil record, though by the time of writing his 1953 work The Major Features of Evolution, this emphasis had waned. The evolution of Simpson's view on quantum evolution was not due to influence from Theodosius Dobzhansky and Ernst Mayr, as argued by Stephen Jay Gould, but due to the evidence presented by palaeontologists such as Bryan Patterson and Thomas Westoll.

Simpson excelled at mathematics, introducing statistical methods to examine biological variation in fossil taxa in Quantitative Zoology.

Personal life

As a senior at Yale, Simpson secretly married Lydia Pedroja, a Barnard student, and they had four daughters, Helen, Patricia Gaylord, Joan, and Elizabeth, before divorcing in 1938. Shortly afterwards, he married Dr. Anne Roe, his childhood friend and a clinical research psychologist.