American paleontologist
Paul E. Olsen (born August 4, 1953) is an Americanpaleontologist and author and co-author of a large number of technical papers.
As a teenager inLivingston, New Jersey , he helped get theRiker Hill Fossil Site named aNational Natural Landmark by sending PresidentRichard Nixon a dinosaur footprint cast from the site.[ 1] [ 2] [ 3] Yale University in 1984. His thesis was on theNewark Supergroup .
His interests and research examine patterns of ecosystem evolution and extinction as a response to climate change over geological time, and Triassic and Jurassic continental ecosystems. His research methods includepaleoclimatology ,structural geology ,paleontology ,palynology ,geochemistry , andgeophysics .
Olsen is the Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences,Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory atColumbia University , and a Research Associate at theCarnegie Museum of Natural History , Pittsburgh, theAmerican Museum of Natural History and theVirginia Natural History Museum , from which he received the Thomas Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Natural Science in 2015. He was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences in 2008.
Below is a list of taxa that Olsen has contributed to naming:
Recent publications [ edit ] Olsen, P.E., Laskar, J., Kent, D.V., Kinney, S.T., Reynolds, D.J., Sha, J., Whiteside, J.H., 2019, Mapping Solar System chaos with the Geological Orrery. PNAS, May 28, 2019 116 (22) 10664-10673.[ 9] Peter LeTourneau and Paul Olsen (ed.), (2003)The Great Rift Valleys of Pangea in Eastern North America, vol. 1-2 , published byColumbia University Press . Volume 1: Tectonics, Structure, and Volcanism (ISBN 0-231-11162-2 ), Volume 2: Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Paleontology (ISBN 0-231-12676-X ) Olsen, Paul E.,Dinosaur and Other Fossil Tracks of Eastern North America : Columbia University Press ^ Kleiman, Miriam (2009)."Amateur Teenage "Dinosaur Hunter's" Find Ends up in the National Archives" . National Archives. Archived fromthe original on 2011-11-26. Retrieved2009-05-23 . ^ "Essex Fossil Site Now a Landmark" .The New York Times . Retrieved2009-03-09 .^ Staff.Foot Forward ,Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory , March 31, 2009. Accessed February 24, 2011. "In 1968, 14-year-old Paul Olsen of suburban Livingston, N.J., and his friend Tony Lessa heard that dinosaur tracks had been found in a nearby quarry. They raced over on their bikes. 'I went ballistic,' Olsen recalls. Over the next few years, the boys uncovered and studied thousands of tracks and other fossils there, often working into the night. It opened the world of science to Olsen; he went on to become one of the nation’s leading paleontologists." ^ Peyer, Karin; Carter, Joseph G.; Sues, Hans-Dieter; Novak, Stephanie E.; Olsen, Paul E. (12 June 2008)."A new suchian archosaur from the Upper Triassic of North Carolina" .Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28 (2):363– 381.doi :10.1671/0272-4634(2008)28[363:ANSAFT]2.0.CO;2 .ISSN 0272-4634 . Retrieved8 January 2025 – via Taylor and Francis Online. ^ Colbert, Edwin H.; Olsen, Paul E. (22 June 2001)."A New and Unusual Aquatic Reptile from the Lockatong Formation of New Jersey (Late Triassic, Newark Supergroup)" .American Museum Novitates 3334 :1– 24.doi :10.1206/0003-0082(2001)334<0001:ANAUAR>2.0.CO;2 .ISSN 0003-0082 . Retrieved8 January 2025 – via BioOne Digital Library. ^ Sues, Hans-Dieter; Olsen, Paul E.; Carter, Joseph G. (14 June 1999)."A Late Triassic traversodont cynodont from the Newark Supergroup of North Carolina" .Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19 (2):351– 354.doi :10.1080/02724634.1999.10011146 .ISSN 0272-4634 . Retrieved8 January 2025 – via Taylor and Francis Online. ^ Sues, Hans-Dieter; Shubin, Neil H.; Olsen, Paul E. (7 September 1994)."A new sphenodontian (Lepidosauria: Rhynchocephalia) from the McCoy Brook Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Nova Scotia, Canada" .Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14 (3):327– 340.doi :10.1080/02724634.1994.10011563 .ISSN 0272-4634 . Retrieved14 February 2025 – via Taylor and Francis Online. ^a b Sues, Hans-Dieter; Olsen, Paul E. (23 September 1993)."A new procolophonid and a new tetrapod of uncertain, possibly procolophonian affinities from the Upper Triassic of Virginia" .Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 13 (3):282– 286.doi :10.1080/02724634.1993.10011510 .ISSN 0272-4634 . Retrieved8 February 2025 – via Taylor and Francis Online. ^ Olsen, Paul (2019)."Mapping Solar System chaos with the Geological Orrery" .PNAS .116 (22):10664– 10673.Bibcode :2019PNAS..11610664O .doi :10.1073/pnas.1813901116 PMC 6561182 PMID 30833391 .
International National Academics Other
