Stanley John Olsen (24 June 1919 – 23 December 2003) was an American vertebrate
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 one of the founding figures of
zooarchaeology
Zooarchaeology or archaeozoology merges the disciplines of zoology and archaeology, focusing on the analysis of animal remains within archaeological sites. This field, managed by specialists known as zooarchaeologists or faunal analysts, examines ...
in the United States. Olsen was also recognized as an historical
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
and scholar of United States military insignia, especially buttons of the American Colonial through Civil War periods. He was the father of
John W. Olsen.
Early life and military service
Stanley Olsen was born in
Akron, Ohio
Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...
to John Mons Olsen (of Bergen, Norway) and Louise Marquardt (of Akron), the second of two sons.
After his graduation from high school in 1938, Olsen worked as a
tool and die maker
Tool and die makers are highly skilled crafters working in the manufacturing, manufacturing industries.
Tool and die makers work primarily in toolroom environments—sometimes literally in one room but more often in an environment with flexible, ...
at the National Rubber Machinery Company in Akron until his marriage to Eleanor Louise Vinez (1917–2016) in 1942. He subsequently enlisted in the United States Navy, achieving the rank of
machinist
A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who operates machine tools, and has the ability to set up tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling machines.
A competent machinist will generally have a strong mechan ...
mate first class while serving aboard the , ''Bunker Hill'' and ''Wyoming'', and at naval bases on the U.S. East Coast and at Mare Island Navy Yard, California, during the Second World War.
Career and scholarly contributions

Following his Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Navy in November 1945, Olsen found employment as a fossil preparator in the vertebrate paleontological laboratory of
Alfred Sherwood Romer
Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American paleontologist and biologist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution.
Biography
Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer an ...
in the
Museum of Comparative Zoology
The Museum of Comparative Zoology (formally the Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology and often abbreviated to MCZ) is a zoology museum located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three natural-history r ...
at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
University. Olsen's technical work as a preparator quickly evolved into his assignment as one of Professor Romer's two principal field supervisors. This opportunity led Olsen to the eastern coast of Canada where he prospected for
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 ...
fish fossils in Newfoundland and to the southeastern and western U.S. where he collected
Tertiary
Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to:
* Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago
* Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...
fossils in Florida, Wyoming, and Montana and
Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...
and
Triassic
The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...
vertebrates in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
Herman Gunter's 1956 invitation to join the staff of the Florida Geological Survey in Tallahassee as State Vertebrate Paleontologist signaled the beginning of Olsen's scholarly career.
One of Olsen's first tasks was reopening excavations at the
Thomas Farm site in Gilchrist County, Florida. The Thomas Farm locality, discovered in 1931, has produced the best known early
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
terrestrial vertebrate fauna east of the U.S. Rocky Mountains. This unique site records predator-prey interactions of the coyote-like ''
Metatomarctus'' and the ancestral horse, ''
Parahippus
''Parahippus'' ("near to horse"), is an extinct equid, a relative of modern horses, Donkey, asses, and zebras. It lived from 24 to 17 million years ago, during the Miocene epoch. It was very similar to ''Miohippus'', but slightly larger, at aroun ...
'', as well as a host of other species, on the margins of an 18-million-year-old wooded sinkhole and cave complex. Tens of thousands of fossils have been uncovered during more than 70 years of research at the site, ranging from frogs and bats to rhinoceroses and bears. Olsen's work on the Thomas Farm Caninae (dog-like carnivores, including ''
Metatomarctus'' and the bear-dog, ''
Amphicyon
''Amphicyon'' is an extinct genus of large carnivorans belonging to the family Amphicyonidae (known colloquially as "bear-dogs"), subfamily Amphicyoninae, from the Miocene epoch. Members of this family received their vernacular name for possessin ...
'', and their kin) in the late 1950s and early 1960s is regarded as foundational for subsequent studies of those and related species. Olsen's analysis of the Thomas Farm carnivores not only established him as a vertebrate paleontologist, but also put him in contact with like-minded scholars the world over, including China, where he nurtured contacts that ultimately came to fruition during his many research trips there beginning in 1976.
In 1963, the renowned ornithologist
Pierce Brodkorb
William Pierce Brodkorb (September 29, 1908, Chicago – July 18, 1992, Gainesville, Florida) was an American ornithologist and paleontologist.
Interested in birds since childhood, he was taught to prepare birds at the age of 16. Later, he rec ...
honored Olsen's work by naming the first fossil stork described from the Tertiary of North America after him. The holotype of the ciconiid, ''Propelargus olseni'', is a partial left
tarsometatarsus
The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bird bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) a ...
discovered by Olsen in August 1961 in Middle Hemingfordian Torreya Formation deposits near Tallahassee and is now in the Florida Museum of Natural History's Pierce Brodkorb Ornithology Collection (catalog number 8504).
During his tenure at the Florida Geological Survey, Olsen helped pioneer the use of both
SCUBA
Scuba, originally SCUBA, often expanded to scuba set, is any self contained underwater breathing apparatus, a source of breathing gas used for underwater diving which is carried by the diver.
Scuba may also refer to:
* Scuba diving, swimming unde ...
and helmeted diving equipment to explore the rich underwater fossil deposits of central and north Florida's rivers and springs. His work with colleagues in the Ichetucknee, Aucilla, and Wacissa rivers and in
Wakulla Springs
Wakulla Springs is a first magnitude spring and major exposure point for the Floridan Aquifer that forms the Wakulla River. Located south of Tallahassee, Florida and east of Crawfordville in Wakulla County, Florida at the crossroads of St ...
is especially well known because remains of mammoths and mastodons were found in association with bone and stone artifacts of human manufacture.
His familiarity with SCUBA and a developing interest in the archaeology of the Colonial period United States led to Olsen's appointment by Governor Ferris Bryant as Director of Florida's Marine Salvage Committee in 1964. The natural conflicts between scientific inquiry and economic gain were poised to play out in 1960s Florida on a massive scale. The Gulf and Atlantic coasts’ abundant shipwrecks were only beginning to be recognized as a resource for both scientific study and financial exploitation and the Salvage Committee's challenge was to initiate accommodation between these two potentially antithetical goals. Olsen's work on the Salvage Committee was tangentially responsible for kindling his interest in Colonial European exploitation of domestic animals, a research focus that proved lifelong and best exemplified by his innovative analysis of faunal remains recovered from the
Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de Atocha
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
.
While on the staff of the F.G.S., Olsen also began to publish his widely distributed and highly respected comparative osteological manuals for archaeologists. These monographs of the Peabody Museum at Harvard signaled his conscious movement away from a focus on
Tertiary
Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to:
* Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago
* Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...
paleontological assemblages toward
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...
and
Holocene
The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...
bone accumulations associated with archaeological sites. Under Barbara Lawrence's influence during his frequent research trips to Harvard in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Olsen began to work more and more closely with archaeologists in their then fledgling attempts to incorporate the analysis and interpretation of animal remains from anthropogenic deposits into the body of traditional archaeological literature.
In 1968, Olsen accepted Hale G. Smith's invitation to join the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at
Florida State University
Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...
where he established one of the first zooarchaeology teaching laboratories in the country (along with those at Harvard University, the University of Tennessee, the Field Museum in Chicago, and the University of Florida). Olsen's transition from the mainly research-oriented environments of museums and the Florida Geological Survey to a broader spectrum academic career is especially noteworthy because he accomplished that feat holding only a high school diploma. Olsen joined the Florida State faculty as a tenured associate professor and was promoted to Full Professor in 1972.
In 1973, Olsen accepted the concurrent positions of Professor of Anthropology at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...
and Curator of Zooarchaeology in the
Arizona State Museum
The Arizona State Museum (ASM), founded in 1893, was originally a repository for the collection and protection of archaeological resources. Today, however, ASM stores artifacts, exhibits them and provides education and research opportunities. I ...
in Tucson, which he held until his retirement in 1997.
While in Arizona, Olsen focused his work on elucidating evidence for the domestication of a number of vertebrate species, especially the dog, camel, and yak.
During his half-century professional career, Olsen conducted paleontological and zooarchaeological fieldwork in the U.S., Canada, Colombia, Belize, China, Tibet, India, Italy, Cyprus, and Nepal and worked extensively with museum collections in Great Britain, Russia, Egypt, and Sweden as well as the United States.
The Arizona State Museum's comparative vertebrate skeletal collections are housed in the Stanley J. Olsen Laboratory of Zooarchaeology, and the Stanley J. Olsen Zooarchaeology Endowment Fund was created at the University of Arizona in 2004 to recognize his contributions to the field.
Memberships and scholarly service
Stanley Olsen was a member 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 ...
, the
Society for American Archaeology
The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) is a professional association for the archaeology of the Americas. It was founded in 1934 and its headquarters are in based in Washington, D.C. , it has 7,500 members. Its current president is Daniel S ...
, the Society of the
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...
, the Society of Mammalogists, and the American Society of Systematic Zoologists. He was a Fellow of both the
Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for ex ...
and the
Company of Military Historians
The Company of Military Historians is a non-profit organization in the United States whose mission is to disseminate "information on the uniforms, equipment, history, and traditions of members of the Armed Forces of the United States worldwide and ...
. He served as the 26th President 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 ...
in 1965-1966 and was elected an Honorary Member in 1996 (the 50th anniversary of his joining the Society) in recognition of Olsen's distinguished contributions to the discipline of vertebrate paleontology.
Selected publications
* 1956 "The Caninae of the Thomas Farm Miocene", ''Breviora'' 66: 1–12, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.
* 1958 "The fossil carnivore ''Amphicyon intermedius'' from the Thomas Farm Miocene, Part 1, Skull and Dentition", ''Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology'', Harvard University 116(4): 157–172.
* 1959 "Fossil mammals of Florida", ''Florida Geological Survey Special Publication'' Number 6, Tallahassee.
* 1960 "Postcranial skeletal characters of ''Bison'' and ''Bos''", ''Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology'', Harvard University 35(4).
* 1964 "Mammal remains from archaeological sites, Part I, Southeastern and Southwestern United States", ''Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology'', Harvard University 56(1).
* 1968 "Fish, amphibian, and reptile remains from archaeological sites, Part I, Southeastern and Southwestern United States", ''Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology'', Harvard University 56(2).
* 1972 "Osteology for the archaeologist, 3, the American mastodon and woolly mammoth", ''Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology'', Harvard University 56(3).
* 1972 "Osteology for the archaeologist, 4, North American birds", ''Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology'', Harvard University 56(4).
* 1985 ''Origins of the Domestic Dog''. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
* 1990 "Fossil ancestry of the yak, its cultural significance, and domestication in Tibet", ''Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 142: 73–100.
* 1994 "The Asian elephant, ''Elephas maximus'', and Chinese culture", ''Explorer’s Journal'' 72(1): 30–35.
References
External links
The 2009 Stanley J. Olsen Eagle Lake Zooarchaeology ConferenceStanley J. Olsen Laboratory of Zooarchaeology Comparative Vertebrate CollectionsJSTOR: Anthropology at the University of Arizona, 1893-2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Stanley John
1919 births
2003 deaths
American paleontologists
Florida State University faculty
20th-century American archaeologists
United States Navy personnel of World War II
Harvard University staff
Presidents of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology