Lambert Beverly Halstead (13 June 1933 – 30 April 1991), who also went by Lambert Beverly Halstead Tarlo or just Beverly Halstead, was a British

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 professor of

Geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

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 ...

and

popularizer of science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

. He was noted for his candid theories of dinosaur sexual habits, research into

plesiosaurs The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an Order (biology), order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period (geology), Period, possibly in the Rhaetian st ...

, and also for a prolonged assault on

phylogenetic systematics Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...

(or "cladism", as he referred to it), in a series of letters and editorials to the journal

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was President of the

Geologists' Association The Geologists' Association, founded in 1858, is a British organisation with charitable status for those concerned with the study of geology. It publishes the ''Proceedings of the Geologists' Association'' and jointly with the Geological Socie ...

for 1990–91. He also was a co-host on the ITV series ''The Dinosaur Trail''.

References

* Republished in W.A.S. Sarjeant (ed.), Vertebrate fossils and the evolution of scientific concepts. Writings in tribute to Beverly Halstead. Reading, England: Gordon & Breach Publishers, 1995. * 1933 births 1991 deaths British palaeontologists Presidents of the Geologists' Association {{paleontologist-stub