Colin Patterson FRS (1933–1998), was a British

palaeontologist 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 ...

at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

in London from 1962 to his official retirement in 1993 who specialised in

fossil 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 line ...

and

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

, advocating the transformed cladistics school.

Education and early life

Colin Patterson was born on 13 October 1933 in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, London, the son of Maurice William Patterson (1908–1991) and Norah Joan (née Elliott) (1907–1984). After

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

, Patterson studied

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 ...

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

, London (1954–57). He undertook postgraduate research into fossil fishes at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and obtained a PhD in 1961.

Career and research

Patterson was one of the architects of the

cladistic 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 ...

revolution in the

British Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...

in the 1970s. In addition to his many works on classification of fossil fishes, he authored a general textbook on

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 ...

, ''Evolution'', in 1978 (and a revised 2nd edition in 1999), and edited ''Molecules and Morphology in Evolution: Conflict or Compromise?'' (1987), a book on the use of molecular and morphological evidence for inferring

phylogenies A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA. In o ...

. He also wrote two classic papers on homology. Patterson did not support

creationism Creationism is the faith, religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of Creation myth, divine creation, and is often Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific.#Gunn 2004, Gun ...

, but his work has been cited by creationists with claims that it provides evidence of the absence of transitional forms in the fossil record. In the second edition of ''Evolution'' (1999), Patterson stated that his remarks had been taken out of context:

Awards and honours

*Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1993 *

Romer-Simpson Medal The Romer-Simpson Medal is the highest award issued by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for "sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence and service to the discipline of vertebrate paleontology". The award is named in honor of Alfred S. R ...

of the

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world. Mission and activities SVP has about 2,300 members inte ...

, 1997 *

Linnean Medal The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and ...

, 1998

Personal life

In 1955, he married the artist Rachel Caridwen Richards (b. 1932), who was the elder daughter of the artists

Ceri Richards Ceri Giraldus Richards (6 June 1903 – 9 November 1971) was a Welsh painter, print-maker and maker of reliefs. Biography Richards was born in 1903 in the village of Dunvant, near Swansea, the son of Thomas Coslett Richards and Sarah Ri ...

and Frances Richards. They had two daughters, Sarah (b. 1959) and Jane (b. 1963). He died in London of a heart attack on 9 March 1998.

Education and early life

Career and research

Awards and honours

Personal life

References

Further reading