James William Valentine (November 10, 1926 – April 7, 2023) was an American

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...

, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Integrative Biology at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and curator at the

University of California Museum of Paleontology The University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) is a paleontology museum located on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The museum is within the Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB), designed by George W. Kelham and ...

. Valentine was born in Los Angeles, California on November 10, 1926. He was educated at

Phillips University Phillips University was a private university Enid, Oklahoma. It opened in 1906 and closed in 1998. It was affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It included an undergraduate college and a graduate seminary. The university wa ...

, (B.A., 1951) and the University of California, Los Angeles (M.A., 1954, Ph.D., 1958). Valentine married Diane Mondragon in 1987 and had 3 children. He died in

Walnut Creek, California Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek s ...

, on April 7, 2023, at the age of 96.

Books

Valentine published widely, and in addition to peer-reviewed publications wrote several books: *''Evolutionary Paleoecology of the Marine Biosphere'' 1973 *''Evolution'' 1977 with

Theodosius Dobzhansky Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky (russian: Феодо́сий Григо́рьевич Добржа́нский; uk, Теодо́сій Григо́рович Добржа́нський; January 25, 1900 – December 18, 1975) was a prominent ...

, G. Ledyard Stebbins and Ayala *''Evolving : The Theory And Processes Of Organic Evolution'' 1979 , with

Francisco J. Ayala Francisco José Ayala Pereda (born March 12, 1934) is a Spanish-American evolutionary biologist, philosopher, and former Catholic priest who was a longtime faculty member at the University of California, Irvine and University of California, Dav ...

*''Phanerozoic Diversity Patterns : Profiles In Macroevolution'' 1985 , editor *''On the Origin of Phyla'' 2004 *''The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity'', 2013 , with

Douglas Erwin Douglas Erwin is a paleobiologist, Curator of Paleozoic Invertebrates at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Chair of the Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a member of the Editorial Board for ''Current Biology ''Curre ...

References

External links

Homepage
1926 births 2023 deaths Evolutionary biologists University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, Davis faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty University of Missouri faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the American Philosophical Society People from Los Angeles {{geneticist-stub