Paul Schultz Martin

Paul Schultz Martin (born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1928, died in Tucson, Arizona September 13, 2010)^[1][2] was an American geoscientist at the University of Arizona who developed the theory that the Pleistocene extinction of large mammals worldwide was caused by overhunting by humans.^[3] Martin's work bridged the fields of ecology, anthropology, geosciences, and paleontology.^[4]

In 1953, Martin received his bachelor's degree in zoology from Cornell University. In 1953 and 1956 he completed his master's and doctorate programs at the University of Michigan and then proceeded with postdoctoral research at Yale University and the University of Montreal. Martin's early interest embraced ornithology and herpetology and he conducted extensive fieldwork from 1948 to 1953 in Tamaulipas, Mexico.^[5][6] He published biogeographies on the birds of the Sierra de Tamaulipas^[7] and the herpetofauna of the Gómez Farias (= El Cielo) region of Tamaulipas,^[8] the latter considered "a classic treatise in historical biogeography".^[9] A case of polio, contracted while doing undergraduate field work in Mexico, forced Martin to rely on a cane, which restricted but did not end his field work.^[10] He joined the faculty of the University of Arizona in 1957, maintaining his office (and his ongoing collaborations and regional fieldwork) at the university's Desert Laboratory when he became emeritus professor in 1989.^[11]