Paleontologist of the Century

[Ralph Chapman <CHAPMAN.RALPH@NMNH.SI.EDU>]

I guess I'll give my two cents worth on this topic, although I think it is
unreasonable to even think of discussing young guys like Sereno, Greg
Paul and even Bakker because they have yet to have their major impact
and, don't take this as criticism towards them at all, they have had no
chance at all to have the long-term impact of others. And yes there has
been an amazing bias towards dino workers here. I personally think
Sereno and Weishampel among the current crop of younger American
dino workers will have the most long-lasting impact, although there are
many like Tom, Cathy Forester, Scott Sampson, etc.  that I have high
hopes for as well. We now have a great roster of paleontologists and
this should do us well for a long time. And this is not counting others
such as Dong Zhiming, etc from other countries. It is a great time. Outside
dinos in VP, R.L. Carroll, Hans Sues, Rieppel, Dan Fisher among many
others are great. I won't even get into IP and Pbot although Derek Briggs
would be on top of everyone's list. Whittington is also great and a great
guys as well.

In dinos, the closest recent ones would be Ostrom and Colbert, of
course. Colbert was the great popularizer and Ostrom was the founder
of the revolution in dinos. Bakker was the main acolyte after the founder,
and Peter Dodson was the conscience in that he was the one arguing
for rigor the whole way during the revolution. However, some earlier
ones were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

So, from my perspective of IP and VP (others will have to handle
paleobotany) I see the following.

In VP, Osborn and Gregory perhaps, but I think Romer is the cornerstone
for this century. Nopcsa and Huene are also very high on my list.

However, IP has generally been the real strength position in paleontology
and only recently has VP really picked up. Here there are a number of
amazing candidates.

My main vote would have to Walcott who was an amazing man
(Yochelson has a bio coming out) and his discovery of the Burgess
Shale had a tremendous impact on everything. It's not because he is from
my Insitution either, he's always been #1 to me. He had the Cambrian in
great shape (NAmer) until another NMNH guy, Resser - a total idiot -
screwed it up. So he would be a number one to me.

Raymond C. Moore was the paleontologist in the mid part of the century
that started the Treatise and wrote most of the best texts. He was
amazing as well.

>From a personal note, Curt Teichert was probably the best paleontologist
who was also a great geologist. He was absolutely amazing. He was in
the first German expeditions to Greenland and then fled Germany during
the 30's for obvious reasons. He ended up in Australia where he and
Rhodes Fairbridge did all the first mapping of and geological work on the
Great Barrier Reef in prep for the invasion anticipated by the Japanese in
WW II. He then did massive pioneering work in western Australia,
including the Canning Basin, and then came to the US (Kansas) and had
2-3 careers there including amazing work in Afghanistan and being the
2nd editor of the Treatise. He then went to Rochester after Kansas
decided that no one after the age of 65 could teach, and taught amazing
courses that I took on world geology and reefs through space in time. He
had over 400 major publications and an amazing life. He was also a nice
man.

As an aside, his brother in law was Rudolf Kaufmann who was doing
detailed microevolutionary work on olenid trilobites with a jury-rigged
digitizer in the late 20's and 30's. He was also amazing and would have
been another Simpson or more except he fled to Estonia before WW II
and was working for their survey under an assumed name. He was
biking out to an outcrop after the Nazi's took over and went through a
check point they had. One of the Nazi's went to high school with him,
recognizied him and they shot him on the spot. So much lost.

That brings us to Simpson. For professionals, Simpson was the father of
the revolution to rigor and much of Raup and Sepkoski's work has been a
rediscovery and extension of GG Simpson. His influence on the business
cannot be overestimated.

So given those, it would be unfair to compare any of the younger guys
right now. Just enjoy the amazing work that is going on by these guys.
Happily, most are friends of mine so it makes me happy even more.


Ralph Chapman