Ronald Singer

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Ronald Singer (born August 12, 1924 in Cape Town , South Africa , † April 17, 2006 in Chicago , Illinois ) was a South African anatomist , archaeologist and paleontologist . In 1953 he was one of the discoverers of the Saldanha 1 skull roof , which is ascribed to an early ancestor of anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ). From 1962 to 1977 he was Professor of Anatomy at the University of Chicago .

Life

Ronald Singer was the son of Solomon and Sophie Singer, who emigrated to South Africa from Lithuania . At the University of Cape Town , he obtained a doctorate in medicine (MD) in 1947 and a doctorate in natural sciences (DSc) in 1962. From 1949 he was a lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Since he was not granted the required equipment for an embryological doctoral thesis, he worked as an assistant to anatomy professor Matthew Robertson Drennan from 1951 to develop the fossil deposit on the site of the Elandsfontein Farm, around 15 kilometers east of Saldanha Bay, which was then difficult to access . There he and a colleague discovered the fragments of the Saldanha 1 skull roof in 1953 . Because of his training as a doctor and because of his anatomical knowledge, he worked as a consultant in the university clinic.

In 1962 he left South Africa and moved to the USA with his wife Shirley , mainly because they both rejected the South African government's apartheid policy; nevertheless, he explored the Klasies River caves in the South African province of Eastern Cape in 1967/68 . In the United States, shortly after his arrival, he was appointed to the Robert R. Bensley Professorship in Anatomy at the University of Chicago, which he held until his retirement in 1977. During this time he dealt in particular with the changes in the anatomy of African mammals in the course of their evolution during the Quaternary and with the anatomy of the Middle Pleistocene humans in Europe and Asia.

He died on April 17, 2006 in Mt. Sinai Hospital, Chicago, of complications from a heart attack.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Saldanha Skull from Hopefield, South Africa . In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 12, No. 3, 1954, pp. 345–62, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330120309 , full text (PDF)
  • The New Fossil Sites a Langebaanweg (South Africa). In: Current Anthropology. Volume 2, No. 4, 1961, pp. 385-387, doi: 10.1086 / 200210
  • with Joseph S. Weiner: Biological Aspects of Some Indigenous African Populations. In: Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. Volume 19, No. 2, 1963, pp. 168-176, doi: 10.1086 / soutjanth.19.2.3629166
  • with John Wymer : Archaeological Investigations at the Saldanha Skull Site in South Africa. In: The South African Archaeological Bulletin. Volume 23, No. 91, 1968, pp. 63-74, doi: 10.2307 / 3888485
  • with John Wymer: Radiocarbon Date for Two Painted Stones from a Coastal Cave in South Africa. In: Nature . Volume 224, 1969, pp. 508-510, doi: 10.1038 / 224508a0
  • with John Wymer: The Middle Stone Age at Klasies River Mouth in South Africa. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1982, ISBN 978-0-2267-6103-9
  • with Bruce G. Gladfelter and John J. Wymer (Eds.): The Lower Paleolithic Site at Hoxne, England. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1993, ISBN 978-0-2267-6111-4
  • with Günter Bräuer : The Klasies zygomatic bone: archaic or modern? In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 30, 1996, pp. 161-165, doi: 10.1006 / jhev.1996.0014
  • with Günter Bräuer: Not outside the modern range. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 30, 1996, pp. 173-174, doi: 10.1006 / jhev.1996.0016
  • Encyclopedia of Paleontology. 2 volumes. Routledge, 1999, ISBN 978-1-88496496-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul C. Dechow: In Memoriam: Ronald Singer, 1924-2006. In: The Anatomical Record, Part B: The New Anatomist. Volume 289B, No. 4, 2006, pp. 114–115, doi: 10.1002 / ar.b.20109 , full text
  2. ^ Alan G. Morris: Biological Anthropology at the Southern Tip of Africa. Carrying European Baggage in an African Context. In: Current Anthropology. Volume 53, No. S5, 2012, pp. S152-S160, doi: 10.1086 / 662289
  3. ^ Matthew R. Drennan: Saldanha Man and his associations. In: American Anthropologist. Volume 56, No. 5, 1954, pp. 879-884, doi: 10.1525 / aa.1954.56.5.02a00150 , full text
  4. ^ Obituary in the University of Chicago Magazine , Volume 98, No. 6, August 2006
  5. ↑ Ronald Singer. Obituary in Chicago Tribune of April 26, 2006 ( Memento of May 7, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Singer, Ronald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African anatomist and paleoanthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Cape Town
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 2006
Place of death Chicago