George Gaylord Simpson

George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October

6, 1984) was an American paleontologist. Simpson was George Gaylord Simpson
ForMemRS
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.[2] 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
Simpson in 1965
process culminating in the modern Equus caballus. He
Born June 16, 1902
coined the word hypodigm in 1940, and published
Chicago, Illinois
extensively on the taxonomy of fossil and extant
mammals.[3] Simpson was influentially, and Died October 6, 1984 (aged 82)
incorrectly, opposed to Alfred Wegener's theory of Tucson, Arizona
continental drift,[4] but accepted the theory of plate Nationality American
tectonics (and continental drift) when the evidence Alma mater University of Colorado
became conclusive.
Yale University, B.A., Ph.D.[1]
He was Professor of Zoology at Columbia University, Known for Modern synthesis; quantum
and Curator of the Department of Geology and evolution
Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural Awards Mary Clark Thompson Medal
History from 1945 to 1959. He was Curator of the (1943)
Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard
Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
University from 1959 to 1970, and a Professor of
(1944)
Geosciences at the University of Arizona from 1968
until his retirement in 1982. Hayden Memorial Geological
Award (1950)
Penrose Medal (1952)
Awards and honors Darwin-Wallace Medal (1958)
Darwin Medal (1962)
Simpson was elected to the American Philosophical
Linnean Medal (1962)
Society in 1936 and the United States National
Academy of Sciences in 1941.[5][6] In 1943 Simpson National Medal of Science
was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from (1965)

the National Academy of Sciences.[7] For his work, Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
Tempo and mode in evolution, he was awarded the (1965)
academy's Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal in 1944.[8] He Paleontological Society Medal
was elected to the American Academy of Arts and (1973)
Sciences in 1948.[9] He was awarded the Linnean Foreign Member of the Royal
Society of London's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Society[1]
Medal in 1958. Simpson also received the Royal
Scientific career
Society's Darwin Medal 'In recognition of his
distinguished contributions to general evolutionary Fields Paleontology
theory, based on a profound study of palaeontology, Institutions Columbia University
particularly of vertebrates,' in 1962. In 1966, Simpson Doctoral Richard Swann Lull[1]
received the Golden Plate Award of the American advisor
Academy of Achievement.[10]

At the University of Arizona, Tucson, the Gould-Simpson Building was named in honor of Simpson and
Minnesota geologist and polar explorer Lawrence M. Gould, who, like Simpson, also accepted an
appointment as Professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona after his formal retirement.[11]
Simpson was noted for his work in the fields of paleobiogeography and animal evolution.

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".[12]

He was raised as a Christian but in his early teens became an agnostic, nontheist, and philosophical
naturalist.[13]

Books
Attending marvels (1931)
Quantitative Zoology (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.19161) (1939)
Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944)
The Principles of Classification and A Classification of Mammals (1945)
The Meaning of Evolution (https://archive.org/details/B-001-013-835) (1949, 1951)
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)
Splendid Isolation (1980)
The Book of Darwin (1983)
 Fossils and the History Of Life (1983)
The Dechronization of Sam Magruder (posthumously published novella, 1996)

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

References
1. Whittington, H. B. (1986). "George Gaylord Simpson. 16 June 1902-6 October 1984".
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 32: 525–39.
doi:10.1098/rsbm.1986.0017 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.1986.0017). JSTOR 770122
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/770122). PMID 11621258 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/116
21258). S2CID 31570609 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:31570609).
2. Simpson G.G. 1940. Mammals and land bridges. Journal of the Washington Academy of
Sciences 30: 137–163. See Charles H. Smith's website for full text: [1] (http://people.wku.ed
u/charles.smith/biogeog/SIMP940B.htm)
3. Simpson, G. G. (1940). "Types in modern taxonomy". American Journal of Science. 238 (6):
413–426. Bibcode:1940AmJS..238..413S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1940AmJS..23
8..413S). doi:10.2475/ajs.238.6.413 (https://doi.org/10.2475%2Fajs.238.6.413). p. 418.
4. Simpson G.G. 1953. Evolution and geography: an essay on historical biogeography with
special reference to mammals. Oregon State System of Higher Education: Eugene, Oregon.
5. "APS Member History" (https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=George+G.+
Simpson&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=a
dvanced). search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
6. "George G. Simpson" (http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/2000
1972.html). www.nasonline.org. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
7. "Mary Clark Thompson Medal" (https://web.archive.org/web/20101229195631/http://www.na
sonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_thompson). National Academy of
Sciences. Archived from the original (http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=
AWARDS_thompson) on December 29, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
8. "Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120801121352/http://nas.nasonl
ine.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_elliot). National Academy of Sciences.
Archived from the original (http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS
_elliot) on August 1, 2012. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
9. "George Gaylord Simpson" (https://www.amacad.org/person/george-gaylord-simpson).
American Academy of Arts & Sciences. February 9, 2023. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
10. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" (https://achievement.or
g/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration). www.achievement.org. American
Academy of Achievement.
11. Gould-Simpson Building, Univ. of Arizona (http://iiewww.ccit.arizona.edu/uamap/staticLarge/
77.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090615005801/http://iiewww.ccit.arizona.e
du/uamap/staticLarge/77.html) June 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
12. Anon (2006). "Astrobiology at ten" (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F440582a). Nature. 440
(7084): 582. Bibcode:2006Natur.440Q.582. (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006Natur.44
0Q.582.). doi:10.1038/440582a (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F440582a). PMID 16572129 (http
s://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16572129).
13. Léo F. Laporte, ed. (1987). Simple Curiosity: Letters from Gaylord Simpson to His Family,
1921-1970 (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_oTFEYuvKCWIC). University of California
Press. p. 16 (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_oTFEYuvKCWIC/page/n324).
ISBN 9780520057920. "By his early teens, Simpson had given up being a Christian,
although he had not formally declared himself an atheist. At college he began the gradual
development of what might best be called positivistic agnosticism: a belief that the world
could be known and explained by ordinary empirical observation without recourse to
supernatural forces. Ultimate causation, he considered unknowable."

Further reading
Aronson, J. (2002). " 'Molecules and monkeys': George Gaylord Simpson and the challenge
of molecular evolution". History & Philosophy of the Life Sciences. 24 (3–4): 441–465.
doi:10.1080/03919710210001714503 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F0391971021000171450
3). PMID 15045833 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15045833).
Gershenowitz, H. (1978). "George Gaylord Simpson and Lamarck". Indian Journal of History
of Science. 13 (1): 56–61. PMID 11615952 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11615952).
Laporte, L. O. F. (1994). "Simpson on species". Journal of the History of Biology. 27 (1):
141–159. doi:10.1007/BF01058629 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01058629).
PMID 11639257 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11639257). S2CID 34975382 (https://api.
semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:34975382).
Olson, E. C. (1991). "George Gaylord Simpson: June 16, 1902-October 6, 1984".
Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. 60: 331–353. PMID 11616139
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11616139).
Laporte, Léo F. (1991). "George Gaylord Simpson as mentor and apologist for
paleoanthropology". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 84 (1): 1–16.
doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330840102 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fajpa.1330840102).
PMID 2018099 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2018099).
Laporte, L. F. (1983). "Simpson's Tempo and Mode in Evolution revisited". Proceedings of
the American Philosophical Society. 127 (6): 365–417. PMID 11611330 (https://pubmed.ncb
i.nlm.nih.gov/11611330).

External links
George Gaylord Simpson (http://people.ucsc.edu/~laporte/simpson/Index.html) — full and
comprehensive biography by L. F. Laporte
George Gaylord Simpson (http://www.stephenjaygould.org/people/george_simpson.html)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090824120929/http://www.stephenjaygould.org/pe
ople/george_simpson.html) August 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine — biographical
sketch from The Stephen Jay Gould Archive
George Gaylord Simpson (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/06/2/l_062_02.html)
— a short biography from the PBS Evolution website
George Gaylord Simpson Papers, American Philosophical Society. (http://www.amphilsoc.or
g/collections/search?creator=simpson;smode=advanced;f1-subject=Simpson,%20George%
20Gaylord,%201902-1984)
George Gaylord Simpson (https://openlibrary.org/a/OL122017A/George_Gaylord_Simpson)
— Open Library

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