Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

and

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and a specialist in

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

Biography

Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer and his wife, Evalyn Sherwood. He was educated at White Plains High School. He studied at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

for his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

Honours degree in biology, then at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

for an M.Sc. in biology and a doctorate in

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

in 1921. Romer joined the department of geology and paleontology at the University of Chicago as an associate professor in 1923. He was an active researcher and teacher. His collecting program added important Paleozoic specimens to Chicago's Walker Museum of Paleontology. In 1934 he was appointed professor of

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. In 1946, he became director of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ). Romer was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1937. In 1951, he was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. In 1954 Romer was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, of which he was a member. He was awarded the academy's Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal in 1956. In 1961, Romer received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

Evolutionary research

Romer was a keen practical student of vertebrate evolution. Comparing facts from

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

comparative anatomy Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in t ...

, and

embryology Embryology (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the Prenatal development (biology), prenatal development of gametes (sex ...

, he taught the basic structural and functional changes that happened during the

evolution of fish Fish began evolving about 530 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion. It was during this time that the early chordates developed the skull and the vertebral column, leading to the first craniates and vertebrates. The first fish lineag ...

es to ancestral terrestrial

s and from these to all other

tetrapod A tetrapod (; from Ancient Greek :wiktionary:τετρα-#Ancient Greek, τετρα- ''(tetra-)'' 'four' and :wiktionary:πούς#Ancient Greek, πούς ''(poús)'' 'foot') is any four-Limb (anatomy), limbed vertebrate animal of the clade Tetr ...

s. He always emphasized the evolutionary significance of the relationship between form and function of animals and their environment. Through his textbook ''Vertebrate Paleontology'', Romer laid the foundation for the traditional classification of vertebrates. He drew together the then widely scattered taxonomy of the different vertebrate groups and combined them into a single scheme, emphasizing orderliness and overview. Based on his research into early amphibians, he reorganised the labyrinthodontians. Romer's classification has been followed by many subsequent authors, notably

Robert L. Carroll Robert "Bob" Lynn Carroll (May 5, 1938 – April 7, 2020) was an American–Canadian vertebrate paleontologist who specialised in Paleozoic and Mesozoic amphibians and reptiles. Biography Carroll was an only child and grew up on a farm nea ...

, and is still in use.

Namesakes

Taxonomic patronyms

In honor of Alfred Romer, several taxonomic patronyms were given in animals: * Romeriida is the name for a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

that contains the

diapsid Diapsids ("two arches") are a clade of sauropsids, distinguished from more primitive eureptiles by the presence of two holes, known as temporal fenestrae, in each side of their skulls. The earliest traditionally identified diapsids, the araeosc ...

s and their closest relatives. * '' Romeria'' is a genus of early

captorhinids Captorhinidae is an extinct family of tetrapods, traditionally considered primitive reptiles, known from the late Carboniferous to the Late Permian. They had a cosmopolitan distribution across Pangea. Description Captorhinids are a clade of sm ...

. * '' Romeriscus'' is a genus from the early Pennsylvanian (Late

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

) initially described as the oldest known amniote, but this is because limnoscelids were, at that time, considered

amniotes Amniotes are tetrapod vertebrate animals belonging to the clade Amniota, a large group that comprises the vast majority of living terrestrial and semiaquatic vertebrates. Amniotes evolved from amphibious stem tetrapod ancestors during the ...

by some authors. A subsequent study showed that the fossil lacks diagnostic characters and can only be assigned to Tetrapoda. * '' Romerodus'' is a genus of eugeneodont fish. * ''

Dromomeron ''Dromomeron'' (meaning "running femur") is a genus of Lagerpetidae, lagerpetid Avemetatarsalia, avemetatarsalian which lived around 220 to 211.9 ± 0.7 million years ago. The genus contains species known from Late Triassic-age rocks of the South ...

romeri'' is a species of non-dinosaurian dinosauromorph named in July 2007. The genus name means 'running femur,' and the species name honors the paleontologist, a key figure in evolution research. The finding of these fossils was hailed as a breakthrough proving dinosaurs and other dinosauromorphs "lived together for as long as 15 to 20 million years."

Romer's gap

Romer was the first to recognise the gap in the fossil record between the

tetrapods A tetrapod (; from Ancient Greek τετρα- ''(tetra-)'' 'four' and πούς ''(poús)'' 'foot') is any four- limbed vertebrate animal of the clade Tetrapoda (). Tetrapods include all extant and extinct amphibians and amniotes, with the lat ...

of the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

and the later

period, a gap that has borne the name

Romer's gap Romer's gap is an apparent gap in the Paleozoic tetrapod fossil record noted in the studies of paleontology and evolutionary biology, which represent periods in the Early Carboniferous from which excavators have not yet found relevant transition ...

since 1995.

Romerogram

A romerogram, also called spindle diagram, or bubble diagram, is a diagram popularised by Alfred Romer. It represents taxonomic diversity (horizontal width) against

geological time The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronolo ...

(vertical axis) in order to reflect the variation of abundance of various taxa through time.

Books

*Romer, A.S. 1933. ''

Vertebrate Paleontology Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossilized remains, the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct vertebrates (animals with vertebrae and their descendants). It also t ...

.'' University of Chicago Press, Chicago. (2nd ed. 1945; 3rd ed. 1966) *Romer, A.S. 1933. ''Man and the Vertebrates.'' University of Chicago Press, Chicago. (2nd ed. 1937; 3rd ed. 1941; 4th ed., retitled ''The Vertebrate Story'', 1949) *Romer, A.S. 1949. ''The Vertebrate Body.'' W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia. (2nd ed. 1955; 3rd ed. 1962; 4th ed. 1970) *Romer, A.S. 1949. ''The Vertebrate Story.'' University of Chicago Press, Chicago. (4th ed. of ''Man and the Vertebrates'') *Romer, A.S. 1956. ''Osteology of the Reptiles.'' University of Chicago Press, Chicago. *Romer, A.S. 1968. ''Notes and Comments on Vertebrate Paleontology.'' University of Chicago Press, Chicago. *Romer, A.S. & T.S. Parsons. 1977. ''The Vertebrate Body.'' 5th ed. Saunders, Philadelphia. (6th ed. 1985)

Sources

External links

Chrono-Biographical Sketch: Alfred S. Romer

NAS Biography of Alfred Romer

Alfred Sherwood Romer (AC 1917) Papers
at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Romer, Alfred 1894 births 1973 deaths Amherst College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American paleontologists Harvard University faculty University of Chicago faculty Wollaston Medal winners People from White Plains, New York Penrose Medal winners Foreign members of the Royal Society Scientists from New York (state) Members of the American Philosophical Society Presidents of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology