Paul E. Olsen

Paul E. Olsen (born August 4, 1953) is an American paleontologist and author and co-author of a large number of technical papers.

Biography As a teenager in Livingston, New Jersey, he helped get the Riker Hill Fossil Site named a National Natural Landmark by sending President Richard Nixon a dinosaur footprint cast from the site. He received a B.A. in Geology, M. Phil. and a Ph.D. in Biology at Yale University in 1984. His thesis was on the Newark Supergroup.

His interests and research examine patterns of ecosystem evolution and extinction as a response to climate change over geological time, and Triassic and Jurassic continental ecosystems. His research methods include paleoclimatology, structural geology, paleontology, palynology, geochemistry, and geophysics.

Olsen is the Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, and a Research Associate at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, the American Museum of Natural History and the Virginia Natural History Museum, from which he received the Thomas Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Natural Science in 2015. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2008.

Below is a list of taxa that Olsen has contributed to naming: Year Taxon Authors 2008 Postosuchus alisonae sp. nov. Peyer, Carter, Sues, Novak, & Olsen 2001 Hypuronector limnaios gen. et sp. nov. Colbert & Olsen 1999 Plinthogomphodon herpetairus gen. et sp. nov. Sues, Olsen, & Carter 1994 Clevosaurus bairdi sp. nov. Sues, Shubin, & Olsen 1993 Xenodiphyodon petraios gen. et sp. nov. Sues & Olsen 1993 Gomphiosauridion baileyae gen. et sp. nov. Sues & Olsen Peter LeTourneau and Paul Olsen (ed.), (2003) The Great Rift Valleys of Pangea in Eastern North America, vol. 1-2, published by Columbia University Press. Volume 1: Tectonics, Structure, and Volcanism , Volume 2: Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Paleontology

In production Olsen, Paul E., Dinosaur and Other Fossil Tracks of Eastern North America: Columbia University Press