Euan Clarkson
Euan Neilson Kerr Clarkson, FRSE, often cited ENK Clarkson ( born May 9, 1937) is a British paleontologist. He was a professor of paleontology at the University of Edinburgh.
Clarkson studied from 1955 to 1957 at the University of Edinburgh, where he remained for the rest of his academic career, except for a time as a research student at the University of Cambridge in Martin Ruck Wick. In 1963 he was Assistant Lecturer there in 1965 Lecturer, Senior Lecturer in 1978, Reader in 1981 and Professor in 1998. Since 2002 he is Professor Emeritus.
1985 to 1987 he was president of the Edinburgh Geological Society and 1998-2000 President of the Palaeontological Association. 1987 to 1992 he was a Trustee of the Natural History Museum in London. In 2010 he received the Coke Medal of the Geological Society of London. In 1993 he received the Keith Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which he is a Fellow since 1984 ( FRSE ). In 2012 he received the Lapworth Medal.
He is considered a leading trilobite expert who is known in particular for the study of the visual mechanism of trilobites. He also worked with the nuclear physicist and amateur paleontologists Riccardo Levi- Setti of the University of Chicago. From him also originate many more contributions to the systematics, life and evolution of trilobites and important contributions to the stratigraphy of the Paleozoic particularly in Scotland and Ireland.
With Derek Briggs and Richard Aldridge he described in 1983 soft-tissue fossils from the Lower Carboniferous ( Granton - Shrimp - Bed ) of Edinburgh, the notes on the conodont animal delivered by the otherwise only tooth-like microfossils are preserved. The identity of the Condodonten, which play an important role in biostratigraphy, was previously long disputed. The soft tissue findings show her as eel-shaped chordates, the hard parts of these mostly found were probably teeth.
His textbook on invertebrate paleontology is a standard work.
Writings
- Invertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, 4th edition, Wiley -Blackwell, 1998
- With others: Edinburgh Rock: The Geology of Lothian, 2006
- With others: Death of an Ocean: A Geological Borders Ballad, 2009