Thomson, Keith Stewart

Thomson, Keith Stewart (1938–  ) zoologist; born in Heanor, England. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard (1961), then returned to England to teach and perform research at University College, London University (1963–65). He then joined the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale (1965–87) to teach biology and become curator of vertebrate zoology. A Darwinist and specialist on the history of science, he made major contributions to studies of the biology of lower vertebrates, paleozoology, and the morphogenesis and evolution of tetrapods, and wrote for both a lay and scientific readership on "living fossil" fishes such as the coelacanth. He became president of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, in 1987.