The Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals.

SIMPSON, George Gaylord.

$2,000.00

Item Number: 129508

New York: Published by the Order of the Trustees, 1945.

Rare first edition of Simpson’s classic work on mammalian taxonomy. Quarto, original wrappers as issued. Signed by the paleontologist on the front panel. Ownership inscriptions. With a note of provenance laid in which reads, “If you go into taxonomy, this might be a nice classic to own. He autographed it for me when I drove him to Boston from a talk he gave in Conn. years ago. His accutron intrigued me, & I later got one (before Dr. Aft got his, even). My best, Doc.” In very good condition. Exceedingly rare signed.

Perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, George Gaylord Simpson was an expert on extinct mammals and their intercontinental migrations. He anticipated such concepts as punctuated equilibrium (in Tempo and Mode) 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.