Ivan Antonovich (Antipovich) Yefremov, sometimes Efremov (Russian: Ива́н Анто́нович (Анти́пович) Ефре́мов; 23 April 1908 – 5 October 1972) was a Soviet paleontologist, science-fiction author and social thinker.

His mother married a Red Army commander and left the children in Kherson to be cared for by an aunt who soon died of typhus.

Yefremov survived on his own for some time, after which he joined a Red Army unit as a "son of the regiment" and went to Perekop with it.

He later commented that "the Revolution was also my own liberation from philistinism" (Russian: "Революция была также и моим освобождением от мещанства").

In the 1940s, Yefremov developed a new scientific field called taphonomy, for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1952.

called Yefremov the father of modern paleontology,[citation needed] who merged geological and palaeontological data into a single science.

Besides the heavy didactic aspect, the book also contained an interesting space travel adventure subplot, so people appreciated it for its educational and entertainment value.

Yefremov tried to give a warning about forthcoming catastrophes in environment, ethics and social sphere.

In 1936, he married paleontologist Elena Dometevna Konzhukova, with whom they had a son, Allan Ivanovich Yefremov.

Source - the book "Ivan Antonovich Yefremov" by Petr Tchudinov (issued in 1987 by the Publishing House "Nauka", Moscow)