Henry Fairfield Osborn

Henry Fairfield Osborn (born August 8, 1857 in Fairfield (Connecticut) , † November 6, 1935 ) was an American geologist , paleontologist and eugenicist . Until his death he was one of the world's most influential anthropologists and paleoanthropologists .

Life

Osborn was born in Fairfield, Connecticut and studied at Princeton University . Between 1883 and 1890 he was Professor of Comparative Anatomy . In 1891 he got a position from Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History and became professor of biology at Columbia University, from 1896 professor of zoology . In 1908 he succeeded Morris Ketchum Jesup as president of the museum . His tenure here lasted until 1933.

His son, the biologist Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr. (1887-1969) was long-time president of the New York Zoological Society (today: Wildlife Conservation Society ) and author of the environmental book bestseller Our Plundered Planet (1948, German: Our plundered earth ).

Research topics

Osborn described and named some of the most famous dinosaurs , including Ornitholestes (1903), Tyrannosaurus rex (1905), Pentaceratops (1923) and Velociraptor (1924).

The two-volume work Proboscidea: A Monograph of the discovery, evolution, migration and Extinction of the Mastodonts and Elephants of the World (1936), in which he the fossil record and the evolution of the known mammoths showed (Proboscidea, Elephants and relatives), applies today as his most famous work.

Although Osborn was basically an energetic proponent of the theory of evolution , he put his theory of the Dawn-Man ("human of the dawn" or "early human") against the derivation of humans from chimpanzee-like ancestors, which was represented by Charles Darwin . In contrast to Darwin's “Ape-Man”, this Dawn-Man was very similar to the now-man from the start. Roger Lewin (* 1944) described this approach as “enigmatic” (puzzling), “because even if you go back aeons , the appearance of the Dawn-Man always remains surprisingly modern. The more primitive figure that preceded the Dawn-Man has never been clearly described. It seems as if Osborn never wanted to admit that a primitive, ape-like creature was an immediate ancestor of the early real humans . "

Osborn's numerous publications on the human tribal history are therefore only of significance in terms of the history of science, since he based his hypotheses to a considerable extent on the falsified Piltdown man . He also took the view that modern man (Homo sapiens) developed in Asia . He argued that the early ancestors of man lived in open terrain and continued to develop there, as the "backwardness" of the recent indigenous peoples living in forests shows that this does not promote development. He also claimed that the human brain is such a complex organ that it took at least 30 million years to form. This misjudgment - at that time with a majority in specialist circles - had the consequence that in his 1927 work Man Rises to Parnassus: Critical Epochs in the Prehistory of Man he found the child of Taung described in Nature in January 1925 (the first discovered specimen of a Australopithecus africanus ) did not mention a word: According to his opinion, a human ancestor “only” two million years old should have had a much larger brain. Numerous other palaeoanthropologists who had adopted his worldview also refused for decades to recognize Africa as the continent of origin of modern man.

Awards

In 1900 Osborn was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), in 1901 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1907 he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1918 he was awarded the Darwin Medal by the Royal Society ; In 1926 he was elected as a foreign member ("Foreign Member") in this scientific society. In 1929 he received the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the NAS. He was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences since 1910, of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1923 and of the Académie des Sciences in Paris since 1927 . In 1912 he became an honorary member of the Paleontological Society

Taxa named after Osborn

Samuel Wendell Williston named the plesiosaur Dolichorhynchops osborni and Robert Wilson Shufeldt junior named the fossil bird species Creccoides osbornii in honor of Henry Fairfield Osborns.

Works

The Origin and Evolution of Life: On the Theory of Action, Reaction and Interaction of Energy. 1917 ( full text )
German translation: Dr. Adolf Meyer. Published under the title: Origin and Development of Life, presented on the basis of a theory of the effects, counteractions and interactions of energy. Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart, 1930
Man Rises to Parnassus: Critical Epochs in the Prehistory of Man. 1927 full text
Proboscidea: A Monograph of the Discovery, Evolution, Migration and Extinction of the Mastodonts and Elephants of the World. 1936
Books by Osborn in the Internet Archive

Web links

www.wku.edu Short biography (English)
www.strangescience.net Short essay on Osborn's theses on eugenics

Individual evidence

↑ Short biography of Fairfield Osborn at wku.edu . Our plundered earth (environmental book 1948)
^ Roger Lewin: Bones of contention. Controversies in the search for human origin. Touchstone, 1988, p. 57
↑ Roger Lewin, p. 57. - Osborn's hypothesis that the enlargement of the brain preceded the other anatomical changes in humans was also the reason for the decade-long failure to recognize the Piltdown forgery, as it exactly met the expectations of Osborn and other researchers Time corresponded.
^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed March 27, 2020 .
^ Entry on Osborn, Henry Fairfield (1857–1935) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
↑ Member entry of Henry Fairfield Osborn (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on March 30, 2016.
^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Henry Fairfield Osborn. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 12, 2015 .
^ List of members since 1666: Letter O. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 29, 2020 (French).
^ Paläontologische Zeitschrift 1, Issue 1, March 1914, p. 65

personal data
SURNAME	Osborn, Henry Fairfield
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenicist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 8, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fairfield (Connecticut)
DATE OF DEATH	November 6, 1935

[1] Short biography of Fairfield Osborn at wku.edu . Our plundered earth (environmental book 1948)

[2] Roger Lewin: Bones of contention. Controversies in the search for human origin. Touchstone, 1988, p. 57

[3] Roger Lewin, p. 57. - Osborn's hypothesis that the enlargement of the brain preceded the other anatomical changes in humans was also the reason for the decade-long failure to recognize the Piltdown forgery, as it exactly met the expectations of Osborn and other researchers Time corresponded.

[4] Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed March 27, 2020 .

[5] Entry on Osborn, Henry Fairfield (1857–1935) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London

[6] Member entry of Henry Fairfield Osborn (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on March 30, 2016.

[7] Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Henry Fairfield Osborn. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 12, 2015 .

[8] List of members since 1666: Letter O. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 29, 2020 (French).

[9] Paläontologische Zeitschrift 1, Issue 1, March 1914, p. 65