Richard Swann Lull

Richard Swann Lull (November 6, 1867 – April 22,

1957) was an American paleontologist and Sterling Richard Swann Lull
Professor at Yale University who is largely
remembered for championing a non-Darwinian view of
evolution, whereby mutation(s) could unlock presumed
"genetic drives" that, over time, would lead
populations to increasingly extreme phenotypes (and
perhaps, ultimately, to extinction).

Life
Lull was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of naval
officer Edward Phelps Lull and Elizabeth Burton,
daughter of General Henry Burton. He married Clara
Coles Boggs, and he has a daughter, Dorothy. He Portrait by William Sergeant Kendall
majored in zoology at Rutgers College, where he Born November 6, 1867
received both his undergraduate and master's degrees Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.
(M.S. 1896). He worked for the Division of
Died April 22, 1957 (aged 89)
Entomology of the United States Department of
Agriculture but in 1894 became an assistant professor Alma mater Rutgers College
of zoology at the State Agricultural College in Columbia University
Amherst, Massachusetts (now the University of Scientific career
Massachusetts Amherst). Lull's interest in fossil Fields Paleontology
footprints began at Amherst College, renowned for its
Institutions Massachusetts Agricultural
collection of fossil footprints, and eventually led him
College
to switch from entomology to paleontology.
Yale University

In 1899, Lull worked as a member of the American Doctoral Henry Fairfield Osborn
Museum of Natural History's expedition to Bone Cabin advisor
Quarry, Wyoming, helping to collect that museum's Notable George Gaylord Simpson[1]
brontosaur skeleton. In 1902 he again joined an students
American Museum team in Montana, then studied
under Columbia University professor Henry Fairfield Osborn. In 1903 he received his Ph.D. from
Columbia University, and in 1906, after a brief time at Amherst, he was named assistant professor of
Vertebrate Paleontology in Yale College and Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Peabody
Museum of Natural History. He stayed at Yale for the next 50 years. In 1933, Lull was awarded the
Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.[2]

One famous example he used to support his non-Darwinian evolution theory concerned the enormous
antlers of the Irish elk: he argued that these could not possibly be the result of natural selection, and
instead reflected one of his "unlocked genetic drives" toward ever-increasing antler size. The poor elk,
coping in each generation with ever-bigger antlers were eventually
driven extinct.[3] His evolutionary theory was a form of
orthogenesis.[4]

His book Organic Evolution (1917) received positive reviews and

was described as an "excellent summary of the theories, facts, and
factors of evolution."[5][6]

Publications
American Museum party at Bone-
Fossils: What They Tell Cabin Quarry, 1899. Seated, left to
Us of Plants and Animals right, Walter Granger, Professor H.F.
of the Past (https://archiv Osborn, Dr. W.D. Matthew;
e.org/details/fossilswhatt
standing, F. Schneider, Professor
heyt031633mbp) (1931) R.S. Lull, Albert Thomson, Peter
A Revision of the Kaison
Ceratopsia or Horned
Dinosaurs (1933)
The Ways of Life (1925)
Organic Evolution (https://archive.org/details/organicevolutio
01lullgoog) (1917)
Fossil Footprints of the Jura-Trias of North America (https://c
Time cover, 1 Jun 1925 atalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001995641) (1904)

References
1. "Richard Swann Lull" (http://peabody.yale.edu/collections/archives/biography/richard-swann-
lull). Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Yale University. 2 December 2010. Retrieved
10 March 2015.
2. "Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120801121352/http://nas.nasonl
ine.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_elliot). National Academy of Sciences.
Archived from the original (http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS
_elliot) on August 1, 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
3. Gould, Stephen Jay (1977). "The Misnamed, Mistreated, and Misunderstood Irish Elk". Ever
Since Darwin (http://www.wou.edu/~snyderj/Biology%20101%20-%20Ecology,%20Evolutio
n,%20and%20Diversity/Articles/Gould%20-%20The%20Misnamed%20Mistreated%20and%
20Misunderstood%20Irish%20Elk.pdf) (PDF). New York: W.W. Norton. pp. 79–90.
4. Bowler, Peter J. (1992). The Eclipse of Darwinism: Anti-Darwinian Evolution Theories in the
Decades around 1900. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 171. ISBN 978-
0801843914.
5. Anonymous. (1917). Organic Evolution by Richard Swann Lull. Transactions of the
American Microscopical Society 36 (4) 281-282.
6. S. W. W. (1918). Organic Evolution, a Text-Book by Richard Swann Lull. The Journal of
Geology 26 (3): 285-286.
 Yale History and Archives: Richard Swann Lull (http://www.yale.edu/peabody/archives/ypmbi
os/lull.html)

External links
Works by or about Richard Swann Lull (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subje
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21867-1957%22%20AND%20Lull%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at
the Internet Archive
Works by Richard Swann Lull (https://librivox.org/author/1087) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)

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