Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö (2 October 1891 – 11 January 1984) was a Swedish paleozoologist. October 2nd is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Paleozoology (Greek: paleon = old and zoon = animal) is the branch of paleontology dealing with the recovery and identification of animal remains from archeological (or even geological) contexts, and their use in the reconstruction of past environments and economies. ...

Erik Andersson, as his original name was, was born in the village of Stensjö in Döderhult parish in Kalmar County; he later took his new surname from his place of origin and is occasionally referred to with both names (as Erik Andersson Stensiö or Erik A. Stensiö). 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. Kalmar County, or Kalmar län is a County or län in southern Sweden. ... A docent (the word being derived from the Latin word docere, meaning to teach) is officially defined as a professor or university lecturer, but the term has been expanded to designate the corps of volunteer guides who staff many of the museums and other educational institutions in the United States. ... Uppsala University Uppsala University (Swedish Uppsala universitet) is a public university in Uppsala, Sweden. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Stensiö specialized in the anatomy and evolution of "lower" vertebrates. His studies of placoderms showed them to be related to modern sharks. His first major work was Triassic fishes from Spitzbergen (part I: Vienna 1921; part II: Stockholm 1925) was based on material collected during his expeditions to Spitzbergen in 1912, 1913, 1915 and 1916. Typical classes Petromyzontidae (lampreys) Placodermi - extinct Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish) Acanthodii - extinct Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish) Actinistia (coelacanths) Dipnoi (lungfish) Amphibia (amphibians) Reptilia (reptiles) Aves (birds) Mammalia (mammals) Vertebrata is a subphylum of chordates, specifically, those with backbones or spinal columns. ... Orders Antiarchi † Arthrodira † Petalichthyda † Phyllolepida † Ptyctodontida † Rhenanida † The Placodermi are fish known from fossils dating to the Devonian period. ... Orders see article text below Sharks are a group (superorder Selachimorpha) of fish, with a full cartilaginous skeleton, a streamlined body plan with between 5 and 7 gill slits along the sides (most often) or side of the head (the first modified slit is behind the eye and called a... Spitsbergen is the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago, which is situated in the Arctic Ocean and administered by Norway. ...

He founded the so-called Stockholm school in paleozoology, continued notably by his successors in the professorship Erik Jarvik and Tor Ørvig. Erik Jarvik (1907 - January 11, 1998) was a palaeozoologist who worked on ichthyostega, one of the first fish to develop limbs. ...

Stensiö was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1946. He received the Wollaston Medal in 1953, and the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London in 1957. The Royal Society of London is claimed to be the oldest learned society still in existence and was founded in 1660. ... The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London. ... The Linnean Society of London is the worlds premier society for the study and dissemination about taxonomy. ...

References

• Nordisk familjebok, 2nd ed., vol. 38 [1] (http://runeberg.org/nfcr/0281.html)

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Further reading

• Patterson, C., "Erik Helge Osvald Stensiö", Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society, 35 (1990), 363–380.

External links

• History of the Department of Palaeozoology of the Swedish Museum of Natural History (http://www2.nrm.se/pz/department.html.en)