Jenny Clack | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Jennifer Alice Agnew 3 November 1947 |
| Died | 26 March 2020 (aged 72) |
| Nationality | English |
| Alma mater | Newcastle University (BSc, PhD) University of Leicester University of Cambridge (MA) |
| Known for | Gaining Ground: the Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods (2002) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Zoology Palaeontology Evolutionary biology |
| Institutions | |
Jennifer Alice Clack, FRS, FLS (née Agnew; 3 November 1947 – 26 March 2020) was an English palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist. She specialised in the early evolution of tetrapods, specifically studying the "fish to tetrapod" transition: the origin, evolutionary development and radiation of early tetrapods and their relatives among the lobe-finned fishes. She is best known for her book Gaining Ground: the Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods, published in 2002 (second edition, 2012) and written with the layperson in mind.
Clack was curator at the Museum of Zoology and Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Cambridge, where she devoted her career to studying the early development of tetrapods, the "four-legged" animals said to have evolved from Devonian lobe-finned fishes and colonised the freshwater swamps of the Carboniferous period.