Euan Clarkson

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Euan Neilson Kerr Clarkson , FRSE, often cited as ENK Clarkson , (born May 9, 1937 ) is a British paleontologist . He was Professor of Paleontology at Edinburgh University .

Clarkson studied at Edinburgh University from 1955 to 1957, where he stayed for the remainder of his academic career, apart from a time as a research student at the University of Cambridge with Martin Ruckwick. In 1963 he was Assistant Lecturer, 1965 Lecturer , 1978 Senior Lecturer, 1981 Reader and 1998 Professor. He has been Professor Emeritus since 2002 .

From 1985 to 1987 he was President of the Edinburgh Geological Society and from 1998 to 2000 President of the Palaeontological Association . From 1987 to 1992 he was a trustee of the Natural History Museum in London. In 2010 he received the Coke Medal from the Geological Society of London . In 1993 he received the Keith Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , of which he has been a Fellow since 1984 (FRSE). In 2012 he received the Lapworth Medal .

He is regarded as a leading trilobite expert who is particularly known for studying the trilobites' visual mechanisms. He also worked with the nuclear physicist and amateur paleontologist Riccardo Levi-Setti from the University of Chicago. He also made many other contributions to the systematics , way of life and evolution of the trilobites and important contributions to the stratigraphy of the Paleozoic, especially in Scotland and Ireland.

In 1983, together with Derek Briggs and Richard Aldridge , he described soft tissue fossils from the Lower Carboniferous (Granton Shrimp Bed) of Edinburgh, which provided evidence of the conodont animal, of which only tooth-like microfossils have otherwise been preserved. The identity of the condodonts, which play an important role in biostratigraphy, had long been controversial. The soft tissue finds show them as eel-like chordates, whereby the hard parts most often found were probably teeth.

His textbook on paleontology of invertebrates is a standard work.

Fonts

  • Invertebrate Paleontology and Evolution , 4th Edition, Wiley-Blackwell 1998
  • with others: Edinburgh Rock: The Geology of Lothian , 2006
  • with others: Death of an Ocean: A Geological Borders Ballad , 2009

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Clarkson, 1R. R. Levi-Setti: Trilobite eyes and the optics of Descartes and Huygens , Nature, Volume 254, 1975, pp. 663-667, Clarkson, "The Visual System of Trilobites", Palaeontology, Volume 22, 1979, pp. 1-22
  2. ^ DEG Briggs, Clarkson, RJ Aldridge: The conodont animal , Lethaia, Volume 16, 1983, pp. 1-14. Aldridge, Briggs, MP Smith, Clarkson, NDL Clark The anatomy of conodonts . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Volume 340, 1993, 405-421
personal data
SURNAME Clarkson, Euan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clarkson, Euan Neilson Kerr (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1937