George Gaylord Simpson, born in 1902 in Chicago. He was a United States Paleontologist known for his contributions to the evolutionary theory and aiding in the discovery of migratory patterns of the prehistoric fauna of the Americas. Simpson was in charge of several expeditions finding many prehistoric fossils. He went on to study these and other fossils to help refine the evolutionary theory. He came up with the idea that living things “evolve” in three ways. These three ways were: speciation, phyletic evolution, and quantum evolution. In speciation, individual members of species leave the main population and evolve into a new species. In phyletic evolution, an entire species slowly evolves into a new species. In quantum evolution, isolate members of a species evolve rapidly into a new species. These ideas (Simpson's ideas) lead to the synthetic theory of evolution, which combines evolutionary theory with paleontology and other sciences. In 1962 George Gaylord Simpson received his doctoral degree from Yale University.
In 1927, soon after earning his doctoral degree from Yale, Simpson joined the staff of the American Museum of Natural History. Then in 1959, was later Alexander Agassiz Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at Harvard. In 1953, an expedition he led discovered the 50-million-year old fossil skulls of Dawn Horses in Colorado. These types of discoveries helped fuel his deductions that species reached adaptive peaks and suffered accidental dispersal, which contributed greatly to the study of evolution and migration.
During George Simpson's life, he was very productive. In his first 15 years he published about 150 scientific papers, many of considerable importance. Simpson also wrote several books through his years. These books included: The Meaning of Evolution, The Major Features of Evolution, Concession to the Improbable: An Unconventional Autobiography, Fossils and the History of Life, Tempo and Mode in Evolution, Why and How: Some Problems and Methods in Historical Biology, and The Principles of Animal Taxonomy. In addition to all this, George Gaylord Simpson made time and served in World War II doing staff work for the United States Army, Principally in North Africa.
REFERENCES:
"Simpson, George Gaylord”. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. (1 Mar. 2003) http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0845317.html 28 Feb. 2003
“Simpson, George Gaylord”. World Book Online. http://worldbook.bigchalk.com/725206.htm 28 Feb. 2003
Written by Rebecca Engelen
Edited by Amy Landin, 2007