Donald Prothero | |
|---|---|
 Donald Prothero, in the Troublesome Formation near Kremmling, central Colorado, 2008 | |
| Born | (1954-02-21)February 21, 1954 (age 71) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | University of California, Riverside, Columbia University |
| Known for | Mammalian paleontology |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Medial Oligocene magnetostratigraphy and mammalian biostratigraphy: testing the isochroneity of mammalian biostratigraphic events |
| Website | http://www.donaldprothero.com/ |
Donald Ross Prothero (February 21, 1954) is an Americangeologist,paleontologist, and author who specializes in mammalian paleontology andmagnetostratigraphy, a technique to date rock layers of theCenozoic era and its use to date the climate changes which occurred 30–40 million years ago. He is the author or editor of more than 30 books and over 300 scientific papers, including at least 5 geology textbooks.
Stephen Jay Gould cited Prothero's research on the lack of response to climate change in mammals from theEocene,Oligocene andPleistocene epochs to support thepunctuated equilibrium model of evolution. He called Prothero "the best punctuated equilibrium researcher on the West Coast".[1]
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Prothero grew up in theGlendale, California area, the son of Clifford R. Prothero (1920–2004), a technical illustrator for Lockheed, and Shirley M. (McDonald) Prothero (1924–2016), an artist and homemaker. He attended theUniversity of California, Riverside where he studied paleontology under Dr. Michael O. Woodburne and Dr. Michael Murphy and earnedPhi Beta Kappa during his junior year. He received his Ph.D. in geological sciences in 1982 fromColumbia University, New York.
In 1991, he appeared on the television game showJeopardy! and defeatedBen Stein on the showWin Ben Stein's Money in 1999.[2] He was also featured in theMr. Deity and the Flood episode of the video seriesMr. Deity.[3] Further, he debated theYoung Earth creationistDuane Gish early in his career.[4]
For 27 years, he was a member of the faculty atOccidental College and he previously taught atCalifornia Institute of Technology,Knox College,Vassar College andColumbia University where he led many undergraduate paleontological and geological field trips. He is currently a research associate in vertebrate paleontology at theNatural History Museum of Los Angeles County.[5]
Prothero was one of the earliest paleontologists to use the concept ofpalaeomagnetism in the study of continental rocks. Palaeomagnetism uses the microscopic iron within sedimentary rock to read the alignment of the magnetic field and correlate that with the known history of the polarity reversals of the Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic reversals are precisely dated and consistent worldwide which allows these rocks to be studied in climate science and evolution.[6]
In addition to his research in magnetostratigraphy, another area of Prothero's research is the evolution of hoofed mammals,[7] especially rhinos,[8] camels, peccaries, and horses.[9]
Prothero's work on documenting evolutionary history of fossil vertebrates was cited byRichard Dawkins in his bookThe Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence of Evolution.[10] Skeptic Society founderMichael Shermer called Prothero's 2007 book,Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, "the best book ever produced on the subject."[11][12]
He has also been featured as a scientific consultant and was interviewed on several television documentaries, including theAre Rhinos Dinos? episode of TLC'sPaleoworld,[13] the History Channel'sPrehistoric Monsters Revealed,[14] the episodes of National Geographic's Prehistoric Predators covering theentelodon[15] andhyaenodon,[16] the seriesWalking with Prehistoric Beasts on BBC,[17] and theamphicyon orBear Dog episode ofMonsters Resurrected.[18]
In October 2012, Prothero appeared in his capacity as a paleontologist onConspiracy Road Trip, a BBC television documentary in which five individuals who self-identified as Creationists participated in a road trip along the western coast of the United States, meeting with various experts on the topic, exchanging views and questions with people holding differing views.[19]
Prothero has frequently written about the topic ofcryptozoology, apseudoscience andsubculture, which he categorizes along withHolocaust denial andUFO abductions claims as aspects of American culture that are "clearly baloney".[20]
Prothero's 2013 book withDaniel Loxton,Abominable Science: The Origin of Yeti, Nessie, and Other Cryptids discusses the subculture in depth. In a review byAdrienne Mayor of Stanford University, she describes the book as "An entertaining, educational, passionate, and valuable handbook for readers interested getting a scientific perspective on the field of cryptozoology. With marvelous artwork and deeply researched histories of the various creatures, this is an impressive and authoritative book."[21][better source needed]
Prothero looks at the evidence regarding global warming and the role humans have had on it. In his bookGreenhouse of the Dinosaurs,[22] Prothero states "geologists and paleoclimatologists know a lot about past greenhouse worlds, and the icehouse planet that has existed for the past 33 million years. We have a good understanding of how and why the Antarctic ice sheet first appeared at that time, and how the Arctic froze over about 3.5 million years ago, beginning the 24 glacial and interglacial episodes of the 'Ice Ages' that have occurred since then." In his article in eSkeptic, Prothero details carbon dioxide increases, melting polar icecaps, melting glaciers and sea level rise as some of the more important areas that point to anthropogenic global warming. He also goes into details to outlineclimate change deniers' arguments and rebuttals to those arguments and finally talks about why people deny climate change.[23]
Prothero grew up in aPresbyterian household, but eventually became anatheist.[24] He became involved in the skeptical movement in the mid-1990s, whenMichael Shermer invited him to join the editorial board ofThe Skeptics Society. His first appearance as a panelist atThe Amazing Meeting was in 2010.[4]
As a result of Prothero's books about evolution in 2007 and climate change in 2009, he recognized that "those same people who were denying evolution are often the exact same people who deny climate [change]."[25] This realization led him to research and author "Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future" in 2013 as he explained during an interview on the podcastSkepticality:
There are lots of people out there who accept science when it's convenient, but there's a lot of things that science tells us they don't want to hear and so then they reject those so-called inconvenient truths. And so this sort of weird, little way of doing things is not only true of creationists, it's true of climate deniers, it's true of AIDS deniers, anti-vaxxers, a whole bunch of various kinds of alternative medicines—it's a very common thread. And many of them have very similar strategies in the way they battle against the reality of science... this is a scary thing because they will accept what science has done in the way of "give us progress" and "give us technology" and "give us transportation", and yet they just don't want science when it gets in the way of ideology or religion.[25]
In 2015, Prothero was elected a fellow of theCommittee for Skeptical Inquiry.[26]
Prothero is on the editorial board ofSkeptic magazine,[27] and in the past has served as an associate or technical editor for such scientific journals asGeology,Paleobiology, andJournal of Paleontology. His fellowships include theGeological Society of America, thePaleontological Society, theLinnean Society of London (1987), theGuggenheim Foundation[28] (1988), theCommittee for Skeptical Inquiry,[29] and theNational Science Foundation.
He served as the president and vice president of the Pacific Section ofSociety for Sedimentary Geology,[30] and five years as the program chair for theSociety of Vertebrate Paleontology. He has also been a member of Society for the Study of Mammalian Evolution since 2005.[citation needed]
Prothero's 2005 workThe Evolution of North American Rhinoceroses received critical attention in theJournal of Paleontology, where Professor David Froehlich lauded the book's comprehensive coverage of North American rhinoceros species, but noted that the work would be less likely to appeal to nonspecialists, for whom the "bulk of the book" is likely to be "more than most would like to know about North American rhinos."[31] However, Froehlich wrote that for those "who need this kind of detail, this book is virtually unmatched and indispensable," noting that his "one real quibble" was the "lack of an overall discussion of rhinoceros evolution" that was geographically comprehensive, which Froehlich thought would "put these organisms in a global context for the nonspecialist."[31]
A May 2009Reports of theNational Center for Science Education review of Prothero'sEvolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters described Prothero as "equal to his task" of providing resources for evaluating the fossil record, and praised the book's breadth of coverage of its topic.[32] Although the reviewer criticized Prothero's treatment of creationist claims for the book's "polemical tone" and "contempt" for religion-based opponents of the biological sciences, he also noted that Prothero "is well versed in the history of science and religion and makes it clear that he sees no necessary conflict between science and religion."[32]
In a review of Prothero's 2011 bookCatastrophes!: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and Other Earth-Shattering Disasters for theAmerican Library Association, Prothero is described as "seiz[ing] teaching opportunities" to explain the methods involved with taking metrics of the types of disasters discussed.[33] While the reviewer praised Prothero for his approach to these topics and "recommended" the work, Prothero's "presentation becomes more complex" as the book discusses ice ages and global warming according to the reviewer, who states that "with all scientists convinced that warming is occurring as a result of human action, [...] he disparages the denialists."[33]
Prothero has received a number of honors for his research as well as his lectures and books. In 1991, he received theCharles Schuchert Award of thePaleontological Society for the outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40.[34] His bookEvolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters received the 2007 PSP award for excellence in earth science from theAssociation of American Publishers.[35]
In 2013 he received theDiamond Award for Distinguished Achievement in Science and Technology from theGlendale Unified School District.[5] TheNational Association of Geoscience Teachers selected him for the 2013 James Shea Award.[36]His lectures on topics like evolution, fossil mammals and climate change have been featured at the Skeptic Society Lecture Series and atThe Amaz!ng Meeting as well as thePaleontological Society where he was named a Distinguished Speaker in 1993–1994.[citation needed]
Prothero was awarded the 2015Joseph T Gregory Service Award honoring his outstanding service to the welfare of theSociety of Vertebrate Paleontology.[37] In 2016 he was awarded theFriend of Darwin award from theNational Center for Science Education, with NCSE's executive director Ann Reid saying "it would be hard to think of anyone who has contributed as much to the public understanding of the paleontological evidence for evolution and against creationism as Don Prothero."[38] He was also named a fellow of theCommittee for Skeptical Inquiry citing his "distinguished contributions to science and skepticism."[39]
TheCommittee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) awardedTim Callahan and Prothero the Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking for their bookUFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens. CSI stated this book "not only refute(s) false claims and misguided beliefs ... but more importantly they also arm readers with the tools they will need to fairly evaluate any extraordinary claim they come across". The $2,500 prize will be awarded at theCSICon conference in Las Vegas, October 2018.[40]
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