THE MAN BEHIND THE SCIENCE: ERIK STENSIÖ, SWEDEN’S 20^th CENTURY DOYEN OF THE STOCKHOLM SCHOOL

ABSTRACT

Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö (née Andersson, 1891–1984), the famed Swedish palaeontologist, scientist supremo, variously dominated vertebrate palaeontology in the twentieth century. He revolutionized his subject by carrying out pioneering fossil-collecting expeditions to the Arctic, inventing new ways of preparing, describing, analysing and illustrating fossil agnathans and fishes, notably Devonian placoderms and Triassic bony fishes, and promoting tetrapod studies. Stensiö, with his student Tor Ørvig, presented the innovative Lepidomorial Theory. As head of the Department of Paleozoology (now Department of Paleobiology) at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, he created the so-called Stockholm School with students and foreign researchers who took the ‘message’ back to their home countries. He was a pioneer explorer during the early 20th century, sometimes with his leading students, Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh, Erik Jarvik and Eigil Nielsen, collecting fossils in Spitsbergen, Greenland, Miguasha (Canada) and Podolia, building important collections and international connections. His legacy to science, and exploration are assessed.