Erik Stensiö

Erik Helge Osvald Stensio ( born October 2, 1891 in Stensio by, parish Döderhult ( today Oskarshamn, Kalmar län); † January 11, 1984 in Stockholm) was a Swedish Paläozoologe.

Stensio was born as Erik Andersson in Swedish village Stensio by. He later took the name of his birthplace. In the scientific literature, he is also a combination of both names known ( Erik Andersson Stensio or Erik A. Stensio ).

Stensio earned his Ph.D. in 1921 at the University of Uppsala. In the same year he appeared there to a position as lecturer and in 1923 professor and curator of the Department of Zoopaläontologie (later Palaeozoology ) at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm; a position which he was to keep until his retirement in 1959.

Stensio specialized in the anatomy and evolution of the "lower" vertebrates, especially the Cyclostomata and of transitional forms between bony fish and amphibians. His studies of placoderms showed that they are related to modern sharks. His first major work was Triassic fishes from Spitzbergen, which the first part was published in Vienna in 1921 and the second in 1925 in Stockholm. This work resulted from material he had collected during several expeditions to Spitsbergen in the years 1912, 1913, 1915 and 1916.

He founded the so-called Stockholm School of Palaeozoology, which was also represented by Erik Jarvik and gate Orvig, his successors as head of the department.

Stensio was since 1927 a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and was elected in 1946 to the external member of the Royal Society. In 1953, the Wollaston Medal he was awarded. In 1957 he was awarded the Linnean Medal, and in the next year also the Darwin - Wallace Medal from the Linnean Society of London. In 1956 he was made an honorary member of the Paleontological Society, and in 1955 the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.