Dick Jefferies
{{Short description|English paleontologist (died 2020)}}
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Richard P.S. Jefferies was a paleontologist famous for developing the Calcichordate Theory of the origin of chordates, now widely discredited. Jefferies joined the British Museum in 1960, and was largely based there for the remainder of his career.
He died in June 2020 at the age of 88.{{cite web |title=Dick Jefferies obituary |date=2020-07-06 |website=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218220701/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jul/06/dick-jefferies-obituary |archive-date=2022-12-18 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jul/06/dick-jefferies-obituary}}
Developing the Calcichordate Theory
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Jefferies first came into contact with some carpoid material in February 1964; some mitrates that had been brought into the museum from Shropshire, and by 1967 he published a paper entitled "Some chordates with Echinoderm affinities" with regards the mitrates, which are commonly viewed as apentameral echinoderms. Over the years, he continuously added to the theory, which was modified later such that each chordate evolved from its own mitrate and as such are paraphyletic.{{cite book | last1 = Gee | first1 = Henry | authorlink1 = Henry Gee | title = Before the backbone: views on the origin of the vertebrates }}
References
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External links
- [https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-0-585-25272-8_4 Abstract of review at Springerlink.com]
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Category:Employees of the British Museum
Category:English palaeontologists
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