Elwyn L. Simons

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Elwyn LaVerne Simons (born July 14, 1930 in Lawrence , Kansas ; died March 6, 2016 in Peoria , Arizona ) was an American primatologist and paleoanthropologist .

Life

Elwyn L. Simons grew up in Houston . He studied at Rice University and received his doctorate from Princeton University and again from University College in Oxford in the group of Wilfrid Le Gros Clark . He conducted field research in Egypt , Libya , India , Iran , Madagascar and Wyoming and, according to Ian Tattersall, found more fossils during his expeditions than any other researcher of his generation. In the mid-1960s he discovered around 33 million year old fossils of an Old World monkey in Fayyum (Egypt) , which he attributed to the newly introduced genus Aegyptopithecus , a presumably close relative of man's early ancestors.

Simons has taught at Yale University and has held visiting professorships at the University of Oxford , the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University . From 1977 he worked at Duke University , where he also directed the Duke Lemur Center and where he retired in 2011. In Madagascar he helped set up the Ivoloina Park nature conservation center and the Republic of Madagascar honored him with an order of knights. In 1981 Simons was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1996 to the American Philosophical Society .

In 1972, Simons married the German guest student Friderun Ankel and they raised three children. One of his PhD students was David Pilbeam , most recently Professor of Paleoanthropology at Harvard University.

Fonts (selection)

Aegyptopithecus
  • with John G. Fleagle : Micropithecus clarki , a small ape from the Miocene of Uganda. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 49, No. 4, 1978, pp. 427-440, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330490402
  • Primate evolution; an introduction to man's place in nature . New York: Macmillan, 1972
  • Early Cenozoic mammalian faunas, Fayum Province, Egypt . New Haven, 1968
  • with David R. Pilbeam: Some problems of hominid classification. In: American Scientist. Volume 53, No. 2, 1965, pp. 237-259, jstor.org
  • A new Eocene primate genus, Cantius: and a revision of some allied European Lemuroids . London: British Museum, 1962
  • Notes on Eocene Tarsioids and a revision of some necrolemurinae . London: British Museum, 1961
  • with George Olsen: An anthropoid mandible from the Oligocene Fayum beds of Egypt . New York, NY: American Museum of Natural History, 1961
  • The Paleocene Pantodonta . Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1960

literature

  • John G. Fleagle, Christopher C. Gilbert: Elwyn Simons: A Search for Origins . New York: Springer, 2008 ISBN 978-0-387-73896-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Margalit Fox: Elwyn Simons, who sought for man's early forebears, dies at 85. In: International New York Times , March 18, 2016, p. 2.
  2. ^ Member History: Elwyn LaVerne Simons. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 3, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Friderun Ankel-Simons: Elwyn LaVerne Simons. A Very Personal View , in: John G. Fleagle, Christopher C. Gilbert: Elwyn Simons , 2008 ( Link , at Springer)
personal data
SURNAME Simons, Elwyn L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simons, Elwyn LaVerne (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American primatologist and paleoanthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Lawrence , Kansas , United States
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 2016
Place of death Peoria , Arizona , United States