I was planning on writing about G.G. Simpson's influence on paleoanthropology today (and more generally why paleoanthropology seems isolated from vertebrate paleontology), but the papers I need are beyond my reach. If someone has the proper access could they please send me;
Simpson, G.G. 1950. Some Principles of Historical Biology Bearing on Human Origins. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Bio, 15, 55-66
doi:10.1101/SQB.1950.015.01.008
andLaporte, L.F. 1991. George Gaylord Simpson as mentor and apologist for paleoanthropology. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 84, 1-16
doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330840102
Also, I have long been trying to track down a copy of Raymond Dart's paper "The Predatory Transition From Ape to Man" published in the International Anthropological and Linguistic Review in 1953. It appears that the journal no longer exists and there are no digital copies, but I would be most grateful if someone could send me a scan of the paper. It is often cited, but I have the feeling that it is seldom read anymore!
The papers should be sent to evogeek AT gmail DOT com. I will update this post as I receive them so there won't be too many duplicates. Thanks in advance to those who can help!
Update: Many thanks to those who have been able to find the Simpson papers. Hopefully I will have my post up soon. I am still searching for the Dart paper, and I have the feeling that it will be much harder to get a hold of.
- Log in to post comments
I keep forgetting to ask you if you have read Narratives of Human Evolution by Misia Landau and if so, what do you think?
I've browsed a few libraries for the International Anthropological and Linguistic Review; unfortunately the only one I've found it in is Harvard University (seems to be in 2 of their libraries, Widener and Tozzer). Unfortunately, I no longer have access to Harvard libraries --- being on staff 20 years ago I really enjoyed the privilege. Can't your school get such things through inter-library loan? I used to work for an international public health consulting firm and my favorite part of the job was running around to all the libraries in the Boston area (except Harvard!) and coming back with piles of goodies. Being retired, not to mention aged, cramps my style. Best wishes.
Have you tried using article request through RU libraries?
The Harvard catalogue was the first place I checked, and like stillwaggon says, they have the 1953 volume in a dusty backroom somewhere. Their website suggests that one can request PDF copies of scanned pages, but without a Harvard ID I can't get very far. I second the suggestion of trying interlibrary loan; they might be able to put in a PDF request for you.
Thanks Blake and still. I will give that a shot. Hopefully Rutgers will let me make a request over the summer. I will let you know how it goes!
I have a biography of Simpson (it's main short-coming being it's emphasis on Simpson's work rather than Simpson the man.) It's interesting that though he was a distinguished evolutionary theorist, he made some lamentable errors (such as regarding the 200 or so anatomical similarities between dinosaurs and birds as "demonstrably convergences".) Scientists, even esteemed ones, are capable of prejudice. As for Dart, he deserves credit for discovering and recognizing the value of A. africanus but criticism for his "killer apes" theories. I'll be looking forward to more information about them both!
I can probably get access to all of the articles you would like via interlibrary loan. Then I would be stuck on how to get them to you in any method other than an email attachment. Let me know if you can get the articles or not. I'll put in a request for them now, just in case it takes a while to get to me.
G.