Prof Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö ForMemRS[1] HFRSE (2 October 1891 – 11 January 1984), né Andersson, was an influential Swedish paleozoologist and founder of the so-called "Stockholm School"[2] of vertebrate paleontology.
He later took his new surname, Stensiö, from his place of origin and is occasionally referred to with both names (as Erik Andersson Stensiö, Erik A. Stensiö or Erik A:son Stensiö) Erik Helge Oswald Andersson, as his original name was, was born in the village of Stensjö by in Döderhult parish in Kalmar County, the son of Johan Fredrik Andersson (d.1907), a farmer, and his wife, Otilia Maria Erlandson (d.1940).
[3] He received his Ph.D. and a docentship in paleontology from Uppsala University in 1921 and became professor and keeper at the Zoopaleontological (later called the Paleozoological) department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm in 1923, a position he held until his retirement in 1959.
For his work, The Downtonian and Devonian Vertebrates of Spitzbergen, Part I, Stensiö was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1926.
He founded the so-called "Stockholm School"[2] in paleozoology, continued notably by his successors in the professorship, Erik Jarvik and Tor Ørvig.