Background
Eldredge was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States on August 25, 1943, to Robert and Eleanor Eldredge. His father was an accountant and his mother was a homemaker.
(Examines where Darwin went wrong. Illustrations by Lisa C...)
Examines where Darwin went wrong. Illustrations by Lisa C. Heilman Lomauro. Photographs by Sidney S. Horenstein. Glossary. 246pp. 85 black and white photographs and line drawings.
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biologist paleontologist scientist
Eldredge was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States on August 25, 1943, to Robert and Eleanor Eldredge. His father was an accountant and his mother was a homemaker.
Eldredge done well in Latin in high school, so that he planned to study classics when he entered Columbia University in 1961. He intended to become a lawyer but discovered himself increasingly fascinated with academic research. Eldredge finished Columbia Universuty in 1965, earning Bachelor of Arts degree from it. Four years later, he earned Doctor of Philosophy from that university as well.
Eldredge served as a trainee with anthropologists studying in a Brazilian fishing village in the summer of 1963, and he began collecting invertebrate (having no spinal column) fossils from the surrounding reef.
While still an undergraduate, Eldredge met Stephen Jay Gould, who was then a graduate student two years his senior. They both shared an interest in scrutinizing the fossil record of invertebrates at the species level.
In 1969 Eldredge assumed the post of adjunct assistant professor in Columbia’s geology department, while simultaneously holding a position as an assistant curator in the American Museum of Natural History’s department of invertebrate paleontology. By 1971, his work on Paleozoic invertebrates had led to a rethinking of the evolutionary process; he published his theory in the journal Evolution.
The following year, Gould contributed to Eldredge’s hypothesis.
Also in 1972, Eldredge became an adjunct professor of biology at the City University of New York.
In 1974, he advanced to associate positions at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History, where he was named curator of the department of invertebrate paleontology in 1979.
Eldredge then began to look at the hierarchical relationships of living systems, working to define the interactive nature of organisms and their environments within successively larger systems.
In the early 1980s, Eldredge unwillingly became the subject of controversy over scientific creationism.
Nowadays he is a lecturer on issues concerning evolutionary theory and biodiversity.
Eldredge continues to study events of the geologic past, with a particular interest in the connections between environmental change and speciation and extinction, as well as the role these events play within living systems. Looking at the mass extinctions of the past, Eldredge has tried to derive from them answers that might help solve modern concerns about biodiversity. Examples from the past have shown that when habitats are radically and abruptly altered and organisms are unable to find similar or suitable habitats elsewhere, they will become extinct.
( Why is there still so much anti-evolution sentiment in ...)
( A riveting tribute to Charles Darwin's life and ideas i...)
(Examines where Darwin went wrong. Illustrations by Lisa C...)
In January 2017, Eldredge became an 'Initiator' for the Refuse Fascism movement launched in the United States just months after the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. The movement was an effort to deny President Barack Obama's successor - the then President Elect Donald Trump - from taking office on Inauguration Day (January 20, 2017) The group's aim was to 'stop the Trump-Pence regime before it starts.'
Eldredge believes extinction has played a critical role in the emergence of new species, particularly humans. But he argues that evolution is not necessarily good, and he believes that our survival depends on the survival of other species in the complex global ecosystem.
Eldredge was a member of American Association for the Advancement of Science, Paleontological Society, Paleontological Association, Society Systematic Biology, Society for Study Evolution, Society History and Philosophy Biology.
Besides his hobby as a bird-watcher, which he says “has real implications for my professional career,” he plays and collects trumpets and cornets.
Eldredge married Michelle J. Wycoff on June 6, 1964. They had 2 children: Douglas R. and Gregory C.
