Paul Tasch

Paul Tasch
Born(1910-11-28)November 28, 1910
New York City
DiedJuly 13, 2001(2001-07-13) (aged 90)
Wichita, Kansas
NationalityAmerican
Alma materState University of Iowa
Known forclam shrimp
AwardsFellow of the Geological Society of America, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[1] Fellow of the Paleontological Society, Antarctic Service Medal[2]
Scientific career
FieldsInvertebrate paleontology
InstitutionsUniversity of Connecticut, North Dakota Agriculture College, Moorhead State University, Wichita State University

Paul Tasch (born November 28, 1910, in New York City, died July 13, 2001, in Wichita, Kansas) was an American paleontologist.[2]

Tasch served in the US Army Signal Corps during World War II. He graduated from City College of New York with a bachelor's degree in 1948, and from Pennsylvania State University with a master's degree in 1950. Tasch received his doctorate in 1952[3] from the State University of Iowa, and was an instructor at the University of Connecticut and from 1953 assistant professor at the North Dakota Agriculture College. In 1954 he became an associate professor at Moorhead State University and in 1955 professor at Wichita State University. He retired in 1982.[2]

As a paleontologist, he studied Conchostraca. He used the paleogeography of fossil clam shrimp in the southern hemisphere (including Antarctica) and the clues that result from it to support the theory of continental drift.[4][5][6] He also did research on fossil bacteria in Permian salt formations, and in the history of geology (especially Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell).[2]

He contributed the Branchiopoda chapter to the Arthropoda volume of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology.[7]

In 1970 he received the Antarctic Service Medal from the US Congress. Tasch Peak in the Crary Mountains in Antarctica is named after him.[8][2]

  1. ^ "Historic Fellows". AAAS. Retrieved 2020-05-09. Tasch, Paul 1962
  2. ^ a b c d e Merriam, Daniel (April 2002). "Memorial to Paul Tasch 1910–2001" (PDF). Geological Society of America Memorials. 32: 23–25. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  3. ^ Tasch, Paul (1953). "Causes and paleoecological significance of dwarfed fossil marine invertebrates". Journal of Paleontology. 27 (3): 356–444. JSTOR 1300000.
  4. ^ Tasch, Paul (1967). "Fossil clam shrimp distribution and its significance for the theory of continental drift". Kansas Academy of Science Transactions. 70 (2): 151–163. doi:10.2307/3627113. JSTOR 3627113.
  5. ^ Tasch, Paul (1971). Louis O Quam and Horace D Porter (ed.). Invertebrate fossil record and continental drift. Research in the Antarctic; a symposium presented at the Dallas meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, December, 1968. Vol. 93. pp. 703–716. ISBN 9780871680938. OCLC 194755.
  6. ^ Tasch, Paul (1987). Fossil Conchostraca of the Southern Hemisphere and Continental Drift: Paleontology, Biostratigraphy and Dispersal. Geological Society of America Memoirs. Vol. 165. pp. 1–290. doi:10.1130/MEM165. ISBN 0-8137-1165-7.
  7. ^ Tasch, Paul (1969). "Branchiopoda". In Moore, Raymond (ed.). Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part R, Arthropoda 4, vol. 1 & 2: Crustacea (Exclusive of Ostracoda), Myriapoda, Hexapoda. University of Kansas. pp. 128–191. ISBN 978-0-8137-3018-9.
  8. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Tasch Peak