George Gaylord Simpson

George Gaylord Simpson was an American paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the modern synthesis, contributing Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944), The Meaning of Evolution (1949) and The Major Features of Evolution (1953). He was an expert on extinct mammals and their intercontinental migrations. Simpson was extraordinarily knowledgeable about Mesozoic fossil mammals and fossil mammals of North and South America. He anticipated such concepts as punctuated equilibrium and dispelled the myth that the evolution of the horse was a linear process culminating in the modern Equus caballus. He coined the word hypodigm in 1940, and published extensively on the taxonomy of fossil and extant mammals. Simpson was influentially, and incorrectly, opposed to Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift, but accepted the theory of plate tectonics when the evidence became conclusive.

16 June 1902

Born on the same birth date (16 June 1902): Barbara McClintock

Born on the same birth day (16 June): Jermaine Gresham • Julius Plücker • Odion Ighalo • Phil Vischer • Tom Malone (musician) • Urby Emanuelson

Born in the same month (June 1902): Eric Fraser (illustrator) • Guy Lombardo • Jimmie Lunceford • Richard Rodgers • Sammy Fain • Skip James • Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu