Beverly Halstead

Lambert Beverly Halstead (13 June 1933 – 30 April 1991), who also went by Lambert Beverly Halstead Tarlo or just Beverly Halstead, was a British paleontologist and professor of Geology & Zoology and popularizer of science. He was noted for his candid theories of dinosaur sexual habits, research into plesiosaurs, and also for a prolonged assault on phylogenetic systematics (or "cladism", as he referred to it), in a series of letters and editorials to the scientific journal Nature in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He was President of the Geologists' Association for 1990–91. He also was a co-host on the ITV series The Dinosaur Trail.

Biography Early life and education Halstead was born in Pendleton, Lancashire in to parents Elizabeth "Betty" Waring (1911-1991) and Lambert "Bert" Halstead (1907-1983) close to the slopes of Pendle Hill. His mother an atheist, communist and supporter of the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War, Halstead was raised as a "young adult" rather than a child and grew up in social isolation in rural Lancashire. During the Second World War, the Halstead home in Pendleton was an open house for many servicemen, including the strong communist Maurice Tarlo. Betty Halstead moved south to London and divorced Bert; remarrying to Maurice. They had no children of their own, but adopted three girls to become siblings of Halstead: Gay, Meryl (emigrated to Australia), and Jean (died young of cancer). At the age of ten, Halstead was expected to go by the surname of his stepfather as Beverly Tarlo.

Halstead grew up surrounded by books in Eastbourne, Sussex, and attended Lewes Grammar School. Walking in the countryside grew his interest in natural history, and he also he hitch-hiked solo across Europe, attended a peace conference in Paris, and spent an exchange year in Blois, France where he learned to speak French. As a poor fit for grammar school, Halstead applied for university admissions, and though he was given few interviews he was accepted into an Honours program in geology at the University of Sheffield, which has one of the few programs with strengths in palaeontology. Halstead may have focused his attention on vertebrate fossils after a field trip to Yorkshire where he discovered plesiosaur vertebrae, and he took part in many other expeditions. In 1955, as part of his belief in communism from his parents as well as an interest in Devonian fishes, Halstead travelled to Poland, where he developed strong friendships with many students, including Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska as well as Julian Kulczynski, but he also began to doubt the philosophy of communist utopia. Halstead also joined William Sarjeant on field trips, and developed a partnership with John R. L. Allen that led them to suggest that the origins of fishes were in marine environments. His attitude led to him requiring stomach-pumping after capsizing and swallowing water in the River Don, a fist-fight with another student, and making an apple-pie-bed for a professor on a field trip. He was awarded a First Class Honours degree in geology. ) and the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Plymouth. After visiting Jenny and Tom in Reading, he had loaded his car up with items for his cottage in Lancashire and Plymouth the next day for preparations for the meeting. Approaching Bath, Somerset in the night, he was unable to see the unlit side of a semi-truck performing a u-turn, and drove into the side without braking. Another vehicle following Halstead was able to slow slightly but still collided, and both cars erupted in flames. The drivers were dragged clear but Halstead had broken his neck upon impact. At the time of his death, most of Halstead's quarrels were in the past. A memorial service was held on in Bath.