George Gaylord Simpson

George Gaylord Simpson
Simpson in 1965
Born	June 16, 1902(1902-06-16)
Died	October 6, 1984(1984-10-06) (aged 82)
Nationality	American
Fields	Paleontology
Institutions	Columbia University
Known for	Modern synthesis; quantum evolution
Notable awards	Mary Clark Thompson Medal (1943) Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1944) Darwin-Wallace Medal (1958) Darwin Medal (1962)

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.

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 George Gaylord Simpson. Simpson was noted for his work in the field of paleogeography and continental evolution relationships.

Debates with Joshua Lederberg

Joshua Lederberg, 1958 Nobel laureate in Medicine or Physiology, attracted Simpson's attention by working increasingly in the new field of exobiology (as well as other areas). Simpson felt that Joshua Lederberg and other scientists were not qualified to make claims about life outside the Earth until hard evidence of such life was found. "Simpson's oft-quoted description of exobiologists as 'ex-biologists' did more than exclude exobiologists from science; it also implied that the physical and chemical techniques favored by molecular biologists, biochemists, and biophysicists should not be considered biological work (a point he made explicit elsewhere by defining their interests as 'not biology, strictly speaking')." Simpson had in mind not only Joshua Lederberg's work in "exobiology", but work in other areas such as Artificial Intelligence.

Simpson's view was that while Joshua Lederberg may have been highly qualified in microbiology, Joshua Lederberg was not equally qualified in all areas of biology. "For Simpson and Mayr, such programmes presupposed the existence of trends in evolution, inexorably leading to the formation of intelligent organisms, humanoids, similar to human beings in their cognitive abilities. Such a conviction stemmed from a blind belief in determinism, a misunderstanding of the Darwinian theory of evolution, and an ignorance of evolutionary facts: cephalization is not a major trend in evolution, and is far less visible, for instance, than the repeated acquisition of eyes. What is selected in organisms is not 'higher qualities', but adaptation to a specific environment... " It is quite appropos that Simpson also focused upon cephalization, understood to be an emphasis on 'intelligence'. Apparently unknown to Simpson, the same error had occurred elsewhere; namely, Joshua Lederberg's views on eugenics and racism, which ignored points #2 and 6 of "The Geneticist's Manifesto" by H. J. Muller.

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".

Quotes

• "Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind."

• "I don't think that evolution is supremely important because it is my specialty; it is my specialty because I think it is supremely important."

• "...exobiology [is] a curious development in view of the fact that this "science" has yet to demonstrate that its subject matter exists!"

Books

• Attending marvels (1931)
• Mammals and land bridges (1940)
• 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)
• 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 Dechronization of Sam Magruder (posthumously published novella, 1996)

References

• Aronson, Jay D (2002), "'Molecules and monkeys': George Gaylord Simpson and the challenge of molecular evolution", History and philosophy of the life sciences 24 (3–4): 441–65, doi:10.1080/03919710210001714503, PMID 15045833 
• Laporte, L F (1994), "Simpson on species", Journal of the history of biology 27 (1): 141–59, doi:10.1007/BF01058629, PMID 11639257 
• Olson, E C (1991), "George Gaylord Simpson: June 16, 1902–October 6, 1984", Biographical memoirs. National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 60: 331–53, PMID 11616139 
• Laporte, L F (1991), "George Gaylord Simpson as mentor and apologist for paleoanthropology", Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 84 (1): 1–16, 1991 Jan, doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330840102, PMID 2018099 
• Whittington, H B (1986), "George Gaylord Simpson: 16 June 1902–October 6, 1984", Biographical memoirs of fellows of the Royal Society. Royal Society (Great Britain) 32: 525–39, PMID 11621258 
• Laporte, L F (1983), "Simpson's Tempo and Mode in Evolution revisited", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 127 (6): 365–417, 1983 Dec 30, PMID 11611330 
• Gershenowitz, H (1978), "George Gaylord Simpson and Lamarck", Indian journal of history of science 13 (1): 56–61, PMID 11615952 

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

See also

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