Björn Kurtén

Björn Olof Lennartson Kurtén ( born November 19, 1924 in Vaasa, † 28 December 1988 Helsinki) was a Finnish vertebrate paleontologist, who is known for popular science books.

Kurten came from the Swedish minority in Finland. In 1953 he was in Helsinki doctorate ( on population dynamics of extant and fossil mammals) and taught from 1955 at the University of Helsinki, from 1972 until his death in 1988 as a professor. He was also a visiting scholar at the University of Florida and Harvard University (1971).

He dealt with fossil mammals ( especially bears) and dug among others in Tunisia and Spain. He is known for popular science books, for which he received the 1988 Kalinga Prize by UNESCO among others. He also wrote paleontological science fiction (such as The Dance of the Tiger 1978 on the encounter between Neanderthals and Cro -Magnons ) and moderated in the 1980s, a Scandinavian TV series about the Ice Age.

Writings

• The cave bear story: Life and Death of a vanished animal. Columbia University Press, 1976.
• The age of mammals. Columbia University Press, 1973.
• Pleistocene mammals of Europe. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1968 ( Paperback Aldine Publ 2007).
• Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, 1987 ( with Elaine Anderson).
• On the Evolution and Fossil Mammals. Columbia University Press, 1988.
• The Dance of the Tiger. Heyne Verlag, 1986 ( Science Fiction ).
• The World of Dinosaurs. Fischer Taschenbuch, 1982 ( hardcover: Kindler Verlag 1968).
• Not from the apes. The evolutionary history of man. Universitas, 1982.
• Our earliest anchestors. Columbia University Press, 1993.
• How to Deep Freeze a Mammoth. Columbia University Press, 1986.