The

Other Side

of the Medal

A Paleobiologist Reflects

on

the Art and Serendipity of Science

Everett C. Olson

Professor of Zoology Emeritus

University of California

Los Angeles, California

The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company

Blacksburg, Virginia

1990

Everett C. Olson (ca. 1986)

Dedication

To all of those graduate students who worked with me during the past 50 years; whose brilliance, challenges, knowledge and irreverence guided my intellectual growth and kept me young in mind; whose strong arms, willing backs and walking legs made possible our explorations, collecting and excavating of fossil vertebrates when found; who have gone forward to productive careers in their own fields and of their own choices.

^{Table of Contents}

Preface 1 The Permian and I 2 The Arroyo Formation, Coffee Creek and Ernest 3 Eyes West — to Younger Beds 4 Ignorant Ridge — the Vale and Choza Formations 5 Land, Weather and Dogs 6 The San Angelo Formation — and a Look Backwards 7 Eyes to the East 8 Impressions — Efremov, Museum, Friends 9 Efremov — the Man 10 Efremov, Science and Philosophy 11 Frivolity, Dialectical Materialism and Science 12 The Other Side of the Medal 13 Books, Writings and Ideals 14 What of Dreams — Now? Index

ix 1 17 27 37 51 63 79 97 111 119 129 147 161 173 181