Storrs L. Olson

Storrs Lovejoy Olson (born April 3, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American biologist and ornithologist from the Smithsonian Institution. He is one of the world's leading paleornithologists.

An appointment with Alexander Wetmore in 1967 led him to his main research field of paleornithology and to his work on Ascension Island and Saint Helena where he made remarkable discoveries in the 1970s like the Giant Hoopoe and the St. Helena Crake. In 1976 he met his future wife Helen F. James who later became another leading paleornithologist herself, focusing on Late Quaternary prehistoric birds.

During their pioneering research work on Hawaii which last 23 years, Olson and James found and described the remains of 50 extinct bird species new to science, including the Nēnē-nui, the Moa-nalos, the apteribises, or the "Grallistrix" "stilt-owls". In 1982 he discovered subfossil bones of the long ignored Brace's Emerald on the Bahamas which gave evidence that this hummingbird is a valid and distinct species. In November 1999 Olson became notable for his open letter to the National Geographic Society where he criticised Christopher P. Sloan's claims about the dinosaur-to-bird transition which referred to the fake species Archaeoraptor. In 2000 he helped to resolve the mystery of "Necropsar leguati" from the World Museum Liverpool which turned out to be an albinistic specimen of the Grey Trembler.

Olson was the 1994 recipient of the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award. He is currently curator of birds at the National Museum of Natural History.

Several prehistoric bird species named after Storrs Olson like Nycticorax olsoni, "Himantopus olsoni", "Puffinus olsoni" , "Eoeurypyga olsoni", "Primobucco olsoni", "Gallirallus storrsolsoni", and "Quercypodargus olsoni".

External links

* [http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/perry/bios/WBFC_booksm.pdf Biography]
* [http://dml.cmnh.org/1999Nov/msg00263.html Smithsonian critiques National Geographic Society’s claims about dinosaur to bird evolution in an open letter]
* [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/object_mar00.html Hawaii's Vanished Birds - About the research work by Olson and James]