Eugene S. Gaffney

Eugene S. Gaffney is an American paleontologist and leading authority on the evolutionary history of turtles.

He graduated from Rutgers State University in 1965 and received his PhD in 1969 with a thesis on "The North American Baenoidea and the Cryptodire-Pleurodire Dichotomy" from Columbia University, where he also taught for several years. He then moved to the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, becoming full Curator in 1980, a position he still holds. He has authored numerous publications on turtle systematics and phylogeny.

Dr. Gaffney pioneered the use of cladistics in turtle research. He has done fieldwork in Canada and the United States, central Europe, southern Africa, China, Argentina, Brazil, and especially Australia, where he has studied the evolution of the Meiolania, the giant horned tortoise.

A symposium on fossil turtles was held in his honor at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, in 2009.

Several species of fossil turtles, including the protostegid sea turtle, Santanachelys gaffneyi, and the Macrobaenid Aurorachelys gaffneyi have also been named in his honor.

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