Name Colin Patterson | Role Biologist | |
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Died 1998, London, United Kingdom Books Find Out about Ferrets: T, Pet Rats, Evolution, The intermuscular bones an | ||
Dr colin patterson evolution conveys anti knowledge
Colin Patterson FRS (1933–1998), was a British palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London from 1962 to his official retirement in 1993 who specialised in fossil fish and systematics, advocating the transformed cladistics school.
Contents
- Dr colin patterson evolution conveys anti knowledge
- Education and early life
- Career and research
- Awards and honours
- Personal life
- References
Education and early life
Colin Patterson was born on 13 October 1933 in Hammersmith, London, the son of Maurice William Patterson (1908–1991) and Norah Joan (née Elliott) (1907–1984).
After National Service in the Royal Engineers, Patterson studied zoology at Imperial College, London (1954–57). He undertook postgraduate research into fossil fishes at University College London and obtained a PhD in 1961.
Career and research
In 1978, he authored a general textbook on evolution, Evolution, and edited Molecules and Morphology in Evolution: Conflict or Compromise? (1987), a book on the use of molecular and morphological evidence for inferring phylogenies.
Although Patterson did not support creationism, his work has been cited by creationists as evidence of the absence of transitional forms in the fossil record. In the second edition of Evolution (1999), Patterson stated that his remarks had been taken out of context:
Because creationists lack scientific research to support such theories as a young earth ... a world-wide flood ... or separate ancestry for humans and apes, their common tactic is to attack evolution by hunting out debate or dissent among evolutionary biologists. ... I learned that one should think carefully about candour in argument (in publications, lectures, or correspondence) in case one was furnishing creationist campaigners with ammunition in the form of 'quotable quotes', often taken out of context.
Awards and honours
Personal life
In 1955, he married the artist Rachel Caridwen Richards (b. 1932), who was the elder daughter of the artists Ceri Richards and Frances Richards. They had two daughters, Sarah (b. 1959) and Jane (b. 1963).
He died in London of a heart attack on 9 March 1998.