Elisabeth Vrba
| Elisabeth Vrba | |
|---|---|
Vrba in 2009
|
|
| Born |
May 17, 1942 Hamburg, Germany |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Paleontology |
| Institutions | Yale University |
| Alma mater | University of Cape Town |
Elisabeth S. Vrba (born 17 May 1942) is a paleontologist at Yale University. Vrba earned her Ph.D. in Zoology and Palaeontology at the University of Cape Town, in 1974. She is well known for developing the Turnover Pulse Hypothesis, as well as coining the word exaptation with colleague Stephen Jay Gould. Her specific interest is in the Family Bovidae (antelopes, etc.), but her current graduate students are studying a wide range of species. She has been a faculty member at the Department of Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, since the early 1980s. She is married and has a daughter.
She is renowned as both a researcher and a teacher.
Her teaching practises and personality were written about by a student named Roberto Rozzi. He wrote about her on Trowel Blazers, saying, "I had the pleasure and honor to meet ESV one time when I was still a student and I experienced not only her charisma and clear talking but also her humanity and openness (she patiently answered questions coming from hundreds of students, professors and children…sitting on a stairway)."
Vrba and colleague Stephen Jay Gould are renowned for their theory of exaptation. Stemming from Charles Darwin's research on genetic traits developed during adaptation in evolution, Vrba and Gould's research suggested that the historical origin of a genetic trait is not always reflective of its contemporary function. Genetic adaptations may take on new functions and may serve a species a different purpose further on in evolution. Gould died in 2002 but their theory has been wide referenced in recent years in popular science writing on mammalian evolution, metabolic bases of evolution and evolutionary DNA change, as well as guitar playing. Vrba and Gould's theory has also been criticized in recent years by scholars who assert that genetic traits are pressured by multiple factors, making it challenging to determine when adaptation or exaptation is at play.
...
Wikipedia