Nathaniel Shaler

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Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841-1906) was an American paleontologist and geologist who wrote extensively on the theological and scientific implications of the theory of evolution. Shaler studied at Harvard under the legendary Louis Agassiz and would go on to become a Harvard fixture in his own right, as lecturer and professor of paleontology for two decades (1869-1888) and as professor of geology for nearly two more (1888-1906).

Ten years after Charles Darwin [1]realised the importance of earthworm soil bioturbation to soil formation, Shaler expanded on Darwin's observations by examining other animals, such as ants [2].

In his later career, Shaler served as Harvard's Dean of Sciences and was considered one of the university's most popular teachers. He published scores of long and short treatises in his lifetime, with subjects ranging from topographical surveys to moral philosophy.

Early in his professional career Shaler was broadly a creationist and anti-Darwin. This was largely out of deference to the brilliant, but old-fashioned, Agassiz, whose patronage served Shaler well in ascending the Harvard ladder. When his own position at Harvard was secure, Shaler gradually accepted Darwinism in principle, but viewed it through a Neo-Lamarckian lens: basic tenets of natural selection—chance, contingency, opportunism—were rejected for a picture of order, purpose and progress which saw characteristics inherited through the efforts of individual organisms. Shaler also continued to support Agassiz's polygenism, an essentially racist theory, given a genteel, academic gloss.

Shaler also served as a Union officer in the U.S. Civil War.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Darwin, C., 1881, The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms, with observations on their habits: London, John Murray.
  2. ^ Shaler, N. S., 1891, The origin and nature of soils, in Powell, J. W., ed., USGS 12th Annual report 1890-1891: Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, p. 213-45.
  • Shaler, N. S., 1891, The origin and nature of soils, in Powell, J. W., ed., USGS 12th Annual report 1890-1891: Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, p. 213-45.
  • Darwin, C., 1881, The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms, with observations on their habits: London, John Murray.

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