In 1978 the distinguished paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson published his autobiography, Concession to the Improbable, which gave the basic facts of his life but left more questions than it answered. Now Léo F. Laporte presents this absorbing intellectual study of Simpson's major areas of work.
Focusing on Simpson's scientific contributions, Laporte provides chapters on Simpson's earliest paleontological research through his distinguished Alexander Agassiz professorship at Harvard and his extensive fieldwork for the American Museum of Natural History, where he developed the core themes set forth in his most prestigious work, Tempo and Mode in Evolution (Columbia University Press, 1944). Simpson was arguably the first evolutionary paleontologist to combine descriptive taxonomy with the modern approaches of genetics and statistical analysis.
Despite his brilliance Simpson was a difficult person to know; Laporte addresses the nature of Simpson's interpersonal problems with colleagues during his life. An introductory overview provides the biographical context of Simpson's career and provides the framework for his major paleontological and evolutionary contributions.
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Biographical Intorduction
- 2. Paleontology and the Expansion of Biology
- Biology and Fossils at Yale
- Biology and Fossils at the American Museum
- Simpson's Biological Insights of the 1930s
- Response to Tempo and Mode
- Adoption of the Population Concept of Species
- Disciplinary Independence for Paleontology
- 3. The Summer of 1924
- "A Very Promising Graduate Student"
- "Digressing All Over the Landscape"
- "Some Discovery to Rival the Boss's"
- "A Considerable Piece of Work"
- "Bone is Abundant"
- "Busy Collecting Other Men's Prospects"
- "First Paper I Ever Wrote"
- "Beginning a Series of Raids"
- 4. Darwin's World
- Prologue
- Presbyterianism and Apostasy
- Evolution and Darwin
- Six Darwinian Themes
- Selected Simpson Commentaries (in whole or part)
- 5. Paleocene Mammals of Montana
- The Invitation
- First Field Season - 1932
- South American Interlude
- Second Field Season - 1935
- "New Ways of Going at Things"
- 6. On Species
- From Types to Statistical Inferences
- From Statistics to Ecology
- From Species to Higher Categories
- Species as an Evolutionary Concept
- 7. Tempo and Mode in Evolution
- Two Door-Openers
- The New Genetics
- Genetics and the Origin of Species
- The Contemporary Paleontology
- Micro-, Macro-, and Mega-Evolution
- Low-Rate and Hight-Rate Lines
- Inertia, Trend, and Momentum
- Organism and Environment
- Modes of Evolutions
- Reception and Impact
- Final Perspective
- 8. Mentor for Paleoanthropology
- The Evolutionary Synthesis
- Simpson's Credentials
- Simpson as Mentor
- Simpson as Critic
- Simpson as Apologies
- 9. Wrong for the Right Reasons
- Background
- Wegener and Fossils
- Simpson's Response to Drift
- Structure of Simpson's Rebuttal
- The Plate Tectonics Revolution
- Simpson's Conversion
- Summing Up
- 10. The Mind's Eye
- Showing What Is Observed
- Visual Induction
- Visual Deduction
- The Visual as Effect and Affect
- 11. The Awkward Embrace
- Prelude to the American Museum Appointment
- Simpson Joins the American Museum
- American Museum Research and Expeditions
- New Directions with a New Director
- Simpson as Administrator
- Accident in Brazil
- "Plus Ca Change. . . "
- 12. Concession to the Ineluctable
- Magruder's Misadventure
- The Nature of Time
- Past Life's Lessons
- Melcancholia
- Simpson as Sam Magruder
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
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