- Erik Stensiö
Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö (
2 October 1891 –11 January 1984 ) was a Swedish paleozoologist.Erik Andersson, as his original name was, was born in the village of Stensjö in
Döderhult parish inKalmar County ; he later took his new surname from his place of origin and is occasionally referred to with both names (as "Erik Andersson Stensiö" or "Erik A. Stensiö"). He received his Ph.D. and adocent ship in paleontology fromUppsala University in 1921 and became professor and keeper at the Zoopaleontological (later called the Paleozoological) department of theSwedish Museum of Natural History inStockholm in 1923, a position he held until his retirement in 1959.Stensiö specialized in the anatomy and evolution of "lower"
vertebrate s. His studies ofplacoderm s showed them to be related to modernshark s. His first major work was "Triassic fishes from Spitzbergen" (part I: Vienna 1921; part II: Stockholm 1925) was based on material collected during his expeditions toSpitsbergen in 1912, 1913, 1915 and 1916.He founded the so-called Stockholm school in paleozoology, continued notably by his successors in the professorship
Erik Jarvik andTor Ørvig .Stensiö was elected a Foreign Member of the
Royal Society in 1946. He received theWollaston Medal in 1953, and theLinnean Medal of theLinnean Society of London in 1957.References
*
Nordisk familjebok , 2nd ed., vol. 38 [http://runeberg.org/nfcr/0281.html]Further reading
*Patterson, C., "Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö", "Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society", 35 (1990), 363–380.
External links
* [http://www2.nrm.se/pz/department.html.en History of the Department of Palaeozoology of the Swedish Museum of Natural History]
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