Ellis Yochelson

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Ellis Leon Yochelson (born November 14, 1928 in Washington, DC , † August 20, 2006 in the Washington, DC District) was an American paleontologist .

Life

He studied at the University of Kansas , where he made his bachelor's degree in 1949 and his master's degree in geology in 1950. In 1955 he received his doctorate in geology from Columbia University . From 1952 to 1985 he was in the department of paleontology and stratigraphy of the US Geological Survey, from 1964 at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC (Smithsonian), where he continued to work after his retirement. He also lectured at American University, George Washington University , the University of Maryland and the University of Delaware .

plant

Yochelson was an expert on fossil mollusks , especially snails ( gastropods ), but also barnacles , beetle snails and single shellfish . In 1993 he and Mikhail Alexandrowitsch Fedonkin reconstructed the Cambrian animal Climactichnites, which is only known from the traces he left behind . The crawl tracks look like motorcycle tracks in the sand and were previously only found in North America. The animal left no fossil hard parts and was one of the first animals to go ashore. To this end, he examined all known finds of the creep tracks.

In 1977 he proposed the introduction of a separate tribal group ( phylum ) called Agmata for the extinct genus Salterella of the Cambrian.

He was also involved in the history of science and after 40 years of work on the book published a two-volume biography of Charles Doolittle Walcott , a leading US paleontologist specifically for the Cambrian .

Memberships and honors

In 2003 he was awarded the Geological Society of America's Prize for Geological History . In 1979 he was General Secretary of the 9th International Congress on Carbon Stratigraphy.

He was the founder of the North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC) in 1969 and President of the Paleontological Society in 1976 . In 1989 he was President of the History of Earth Science Society.

Since he also worked in the Antarctic, Yochelson Ridge was named after him there (Heritage Range, Ellsworth Mountains).

Fonts

  • Charles Doolittle Walcott. Paleontologist , The Kent State University Press, 1998
  • The National Museum of Natural History: 75 years in the Natural History Building , Smithsonian Institution Press 1985

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dates of birth according to American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004
  2. ↑ Yochelson, Fedonkin Paleobiology of Climactichnites, an enigmatic late cambrian fossil , Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, Volume 74, 1993. Online, 13 MB, pdf
  3. ^ Yochelson Agmata. A proposed extinct phylum of cambrian age , Journal of Paleontology, Volume 51, 1977, p. 437
personal data
SURNAME Yochelson, Ellis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yochelson, Ellis Leon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 2006
Place of death Washington, DC District