Erik Jarvik

Anders Erik Vilhelm Jarvik (30 November 1907 – 11 January 1998) was a Swedish paleontologist who worked extensively on the sarcopterygian (or lobe-finned) fish Eusthenopteron.

In a career that spanned some 60 years, Jarvik produced some of the most detailed anatomical work on this fish, making it arguably the best known fossil vertebrate.

[11] In particular, he conducted detailed anatomical studies of the cranium of Eusthenopteron foordi using a serial-section technique introduced by William Johnson Sollas and applied to fossil fishes by Erik Stensiö.

Working in the day before computer simulations, models were made by projecting reversal film on a board, and cut thin wax plates to match.

[15] Jarvik was deeply involved in the debate over the principal structure and homology of the vertebrate head,[16][17][18] and he was responsible for a controversial proposal regarding the origin of the tetrapods.

He proposed, on the basis of detailed analyses of the snout and nasal capsule structures as well as the intermandibular, neuroepiphysial, and occipital regions, that Tetrapoda was biphyletic.

The Swedish Museum of Natural History where Jarvik conducted most of his research
Jarvik did very detailed studies of the fossil fish Eusthenopteron
Following Jarvik's hypothesis of polyphyletic amphibians, this cast of a porolepiform at the natural history museum in Gothenburg, Sweden, is labelled "Salamanderfisk" ("salamander fish").