George Gaylord Simpson
George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was one the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century and a major figure in the modern evolutionary synthesis, helping to integrate paleontology into this newly emerging synthetic theory. His works Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944) and Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals (1945) were particularly instrumental in this respect.
An expert on extinct mammals and their intercontinent migrations, Simpson also is noted for dispelling the view that the evolution of the horse was a linear process culminating in the modern Equus caballus and for anticipating such concepts as punctuated equilibrium.
One of Simpson's famous quotes is "Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind." There is nothing in the science that proves this point definitively. This is really a reflection of "dogma" or a type of "religious view" to which Simpson adheres and is so common in science. In reality, while there is a lot of evidence for descent with modification (the pattern of evolution), the process of evolution (natural selection) on the macroevolutionary level remains an extrapolation from process on the microevolutionary levels. Simpson's adherence represents a "belief" rather than based on hard science.
Biography
George Gaylord Simpson was in Chicago on June 16, 1902, the first son and third and last child of Joseph A. Simpson, a lawyer, and Helen J. (Kinney) Simpson (Laporte 2007b, 2007c). His father handled railroad claims as an attorney, but became involved in land speculation and mining, which led to there moving briefly to Wyoming and then in 1903 to Denver (Laporte 2007b). Simpson had a strict, fundamental Presbyterian upbring, but was to reject formal religion by the early teens (Laporte 2007b).
In 1910, he talked his parents into the purchase of the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which he contributed to the purchase of, and he read it straight through (Laporte 2007b, 2007c). He graduated from elementary school in 1914 at the age of 11, having completed 8 grades in 6 years, and graduated high school in 1918, close to his sixteenth birthday.
In 1918, at the age of 16, Simpson entered the University of Colorado at Boulder, but his Father lost his mine in Alma, Colorado, and with the family finances at a low point, he briefly drops out (Laporte 2007b). After returning to the University of Colorado, he stays until his senior year, 1922, when he transfers to Yale because he is advised it is the best place to study geology and paleontology. In 1923, he secretly marries Lydia Pedroja, despite it being contrary to Yale's regulations. In June, 1926, he completes his Ph.D. in geology in Yale.
In 1927, Simpson takes a position as assistant curator in vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History and in 1928 is promoted to associate curator. By 1932, Simpson is formally separated form Lydia and has custody of one daughter, Helen, while one daughter lives with maternal grandmother, and his two other daughters with Lydia are under the custody of Lydia. However, in late 1932, Lydia is committed to a mental hospital and Simpson parents care for these two daughters. Lydia had had a history of mental problems even before meeting Simpson (Laporte 2007b). In 1932, Simpson begins to live with Anne Roe, a childhood friend, who also had obtained a Ph.D., from Columbia University in psychology, and had divorced her husband in 1932. Simpson would gain a divorce from Lydia in April 1938 and marry Anne a month later (Laporte 2007b).
In 1942, Simpson becomes the first elected President of Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 1942, after the Director of the American Museum of Natural History disbands the department of vertebrate paleontology to Simpson's dismay, he is promoted to curator of fossil mammals, but in December of that year he starts duty with the U.S. Army as a captain in military intelligence—after completing a six-week course in one week (Laporte 2007c). In August 1944, slowly recovering from hepatitis infection, Major Simpson is released from duty with two Bronze Stars. The same year, the Simpson becomes the chairman of the newly created Department of Geology and Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, and in 1945 he also takes a position as professor of vertebrate paleontology in the department of zoology at Columbia University.
Simpson's classic work, Tempo and Mode in Evolution, is published in 1944. In this work, he integrates paleontology within the modern evolutionary synthesis (Hull 1988). In 1949 he published a popular account of modern evolutionary theory from the point of view of paleontology, The Meaning of Evolution, which was to become widely sold and translated into ten languages.
Simpson 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. In 1958 he gave up chairmanship of the Department and resigned shortly thereafter from the American Museum, taking an appointment as professor at the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University. He was curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University from 1959 to 1970.
In 1963, when Anne is made a professor at Harvard University, Simpson and his wife become the first husband-wife couple to be full professors at Harvard (Laporte 2007c).
In 1968, Simpson is appointed professor geosciences at the University of Arizona, from which he will retire only in 1982, at the age of 80. He continues part-time with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard until 1970 as well.
In 1984, Simpson's final book, "Discoverers of the Lost World," is published, which, like his first, "Attending Marvels," is about South America. On Saturday, October 6, Simpson dies of heart failure in a Tuscon hospital. A manuscript he was working on, dealing with extinction, is posthumously published the next year.
Quotes
| “ | Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind. (Simpson 1967, p. 345). | ” |
| “ | 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. (Larson 2004) </ref> | ” |
| “ | The regular absence of transitional forms is not confined to mammals, but is an almost universal phenomenon, as has long been noted by paleontologists." | ” |
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)
- Splendid Isolation (1980)
- The Dechronization of Sam Magruder (posthumously published novella, 1996)
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Gould, S. J. 2002. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
- Gould, S. J. 2007. George Gaylord Simpson. The Stephen Jay Gould Archive. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
- Hull, D. L. 1988. Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- Laporte, L. F. 2007a. George Gaylord Simpson: Introduction. UC Santa Cruz: Information Technology Services. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
- Laporte, L. F. 2007b. George Gaylord Simpson: Biography. UC Santa Cruz: Information Technology Services. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
- Laporte, L. F. 2007c. George Gaylord Simpson: Chronology. UC Santa Cruz: Information Technology Services. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
- Larson, E. J. 2004. Evolution. Modern Library. ISBN 0679642889.
- Public Broadcasting Service. 2007. George Gaylord Simpson]. PBS. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
- Simpson, G. G. 1967. The Meaning of Evolution. New Haven: Yale University Press.
External links
- George Gaylord Simpson Papers, American Philosophical Society. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
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