Storrs L. Olson

Storrs Lovejoy Olson ( born April 3, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American paleontologist and ornithologists from the Smithsonian Institution. He is one of the leading Paläornithologen.

A meeting with Alexander Wetmore in 1967 led Olson to his main area of ​​research, the Paläornithologie and to his work at Ascension and St. Helena, where he made remarkable discoveries, including the first bone finds from St Helena hoopoe and the St. - Helena Crake count. In 1976, he met his future wife, Helen Frances James know that now counts itself among the leading Paläornithologen and specializes in the field of Late Quaternary avifauna.

During her 23 years of working in Hawaii discovered and described Olson and James the subfossil remains of over 50 bird species that until now were unknown to science. These include the Nene -nui, the Moa - Nalos, the Maui Nui ibis and owls genus Grallistrix. In 1982, Olson fossil bones of the long ignored Bracesmaragdkolibris ( Chlorostilbon bracei ) and thus provided the evidence that this hummingbird represents a valid type. In November 1999, Olson made ​​headlines after he was attacked in an open letter to the National Geographic Society paleontologists Christopher P. Sloan because of his theory of the evolution of dinosaurs to birds, which he had set up Archaeoraptor based on the fossil forgery. In 2000 he broke with the help of DNA analysis the mystery Necropsar leguati from the World Museum Liverpool, which turned out to be albino specimen of the gray dither throttle ( Cinclocerthia gutturalis ).

Olson was until 2009 bird curator at the National Museum of Natural History. Today he stops an emeritus position.

Several species of birds are named after Olson. To include here: Nycticorax Olsoni, Himantopus Olsoni, Puffinus Olsoni, Eoeurypyga Olsoni, Primobucco Olsoni, Gallirallus storrsolsoni and Quercypodargus Olsoni.