Memorial to Leif St0rmer 1905-1979

Memorial to Leif St0rmer 1905-1979 H . B. W H I T T I N G T O N Department of Geology, Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge CB2 3EQ England Leif St^rm er was born in Kristiania (the City of Oslo since 1924), Norway, and began his studies in the Univer- sity of Oslo in 1923. His father, F. C. St^rmer, was Professor of M athem atics in the University and was also internationally known for his research on the Northern Lights. The young St^rm er was inspired by his father’s eminent colleagues, particularly the geologist W. C. Br0gger and the zoologist G. O. Sars. St^rm er’s interest in the lower Paleozoic rocks and fossils of the Oslo dis trict was revealed in a paper published when he was 15 years old on Lower Ordovician trilobites, and continued with a life-long series of papers on Cambrian and Ordo vician trilobites and graptolites. He gained international recognition for his 1930 study on Scandinavian trinucleid trilobites (for which he received his doctorate). He not only described and beautifully illustrated old and new species, but investigated the exoskele- tal structures, illustrated variation in numbers of pits in the fringe with histograms, and discussed evolution and mode of life. His zoological training had included taking part in an oceanographic expedition to West Greenland in 1924, and subsequently he stressed the importance of such training when interpreting fossils. In order to understand the environ ment in which the fossils occurred, and their relationships in time, he studied the stratigraphy of the Oslo district, publishing an account of it in 1945, which was revised in 1956 in preparation for the 1960 International Congress in Nordern, and again in 1966. Between 1936 and 1946, St^rm er was an assistant, and later Curator, in the Paleontologisk Museum, University of Oslo, and during that period he redescribed many early, im portant, but poorly known type specimens of trilobites. In 1946 he became Professor of Historical Geology at the University of Oslo, and Director of the Paleontologisk Institutt in 1948. St6rmer was a driving force in bringing together the various geological institutes into a new building in 1958, his wise and patient administration working toward the best for all. He relinquished administrative duties several years before his retirement in 1975, in order to complete particular research projects. St^rm er enjoyed teaching, and he also brought the results of his researches to a wider public in popular articles in Norwegian and English. In 1964, he published a textbook on historical geology in Norwegian. The famous colored wall chart of the evolution of animal life which he and A. Heintz produced is another example of his wide interests. A masterly review of the stratigraphy and tectonics of the Caledonian geosyncline in 1967 showed his broad grasp of the setting of the Oslo region. Early in his professorship (1953), he initiated a detailed study of Middle Ordovician rocks of the Oslo region with a description of the stratigraphy of this complex region and a discussion of correlation and classification. This series has been continued by his students, colleagues, and visiting scientists describing the graptolitic and shelly faunas, and at the time of his death, he was working on the Chasmops group of trilobites from these rocks. An im portant influence on St^rm er’s life and work was his first visit to the United States in 1931-1932. He worked at Harvard University with P. E. Raymond, and there used a serial 2 Tin: GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP AMERICA sectioning technique (which he had seen being developed by E. A. Stensio in Sweden to study fossil fish) to investigate the limbs of an enrolled trilobite. He also examined in detail the famous Utica Shale trilobites with appendages which Raymond had worked on, and the Walcott collections from the Burgess Shale in the U.S. National Museum. In this way, he gathered a unique insight into the anatomy of early arthropods, which resulted in his studies of trilobite morphology (1939, 1942, 1951). This work encompassed the appendages, devel opment, classification, and relationships of trilobites; it was based on meticulous studies of old and new material, his own observations, wide reading, and zoological knowledge- he was never a mere reviewer, a “paper paleontologist.” It established him as the leading authority on trilobites. The broader aspects of his work were brought together during the same period, in his classic study of fossil and Recent arthropods ( 1944), in which he proposed an amended Phylum Arachnomorpha, to include his new group Trilobitomorpha and the Chelicerata. This work amplified the theme he had already announced (1933), that his studies of gill structures led him to consider that the trilobites were more closely related to Limulus and its allies (that is to the Arachnida), rather than to the Crustacea, as was most generally accepted at the time. Further, Trilobitomorpha, embracing trilobites and the varied arthropods of the Burgess Shale, were a natural group having a common type of appendage. These points of view, and his wide knowledge, are seen in summary form in his contributions to the Traité de Zoologie (1949) and to Part O of the Treatise o f Invertebrate Paleontology (1959). St0rmer’s genial personality and sense of humor, as well as his scholarship, enabled him to make many friends among the paleontologists and biologists he met in the United States A. S. Romer, G. H. Parker, and H. B. Bigelow at Harvard University; Carl O. Dunbar at Yale University; R. Ruedemann at the New York State Museum; and C. E. Resser at the U.S. National Museum. He and his wife enjoyed renewing friendships during several post-war visits for study in the eastern United States. St^rmer remained in Norway during the occupation in the Second World War, continuing his research in the Paleontologisk Museum and at his cottage in the mountains between Bergen and Oslo. He played an important role as treasurer in the Resistance, and in the later stages of the war, he had to go underground to avoid arrest. A friend and inspiring teacher of St^rmer was Professor J. Kiaer, who made his wonderful discoveries of early vertebrates and arthropods at Ringerike, north of Oslo. Kiasr had excavated the eurypterids from the rock but had done no further work on them because he had been fully occupied with studies of the vertebrates. He offered St^rmer the eurypterid material for description, and he helped him to gain the scholarship that made his 1931 visit to the United States possible. St^rmer took with him some of the best eurypterid specimens, to compare with American material. So began another strand that ran throughout his extraor dinarily varied geological studies—the understanding of the paleobiology of eurypterids and scorpions. In 1931, R. Ruedemann was the leading authority on these fossils, and his enthusiasm, wit, and knowledge were a great encouragement. In 1934 came St^rmer’s publication on the Ringerike fossils, and in the next 25 years, many shorter papers on British, German, Scandinavian (including Spitsbergen), Soviet Union, and American merostomes and arachnids, sandwiched in between his trilobite and stratigraphical studies. He was happy to work with others who shared these interests, such as Nestor Novojilov and Nils-Martin Hanken, and he gained particular stimulation from his long friendship with the late Erik N. Kjellesvig-Waering. His eminence led to his being chosen to write the section on merostomes in the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (1955). From I960 onward, his administrative burdens lightened and he was able to exercise his imagination and skill on the study of both promising and unpromising rare specimens. Remarkable is his paper ( 1963) on MEMORIAL TO LEIF ST0RMER 3 a large Carboniferous scorpion, and the fascinating story he extracted of the micro organisms that preyed on the soft parts. In collaboration with C. D. Waterston of the Royal Scottish Museum (1968), meaning was brought to fragments of a unique comb-bearing arthropod found in late Paleozoic rocks. It is a great gain for paleontology that he was able to complete his descriptions (1970-1976) of the Lower Devonian arachnids, xiphosurans, eurypterids, and other arthropods from Aiken an der Mosel in Germany. As in all of his work, he did not stop at detailed and painstaking descriptions, but surveyed adaptive radiation and classification of eurypterids, and went on to a general account of the arthropod fauna, paleoecology, and a new and stimulating discussion of how arthropods invaded the land. Leif St^rmer’s remarkable powers and accomplishments as a scientist stemmed from a broad, sound training and his joy in the natural world and particularly the study of fossils. He took great care in his observations and thought about them from every angle. He was always welcome among his international circle of friends, sharing the surprises of new observations and discussing their meaning with insight and knowledge. His scholarship was recognized by numerous honors in his country and abroad, including Honorary Fellowship in the Geological Society of America and election as a Correspondent of the Paleontological Society. He attended many International Geological Congresses and the accompanying excursions. From 1960 to 1965, he served as President of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Another high light in his career was to serve as Chairman of the Committee which organized the highly successful NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Oslo in 1973, a first meeting of international experts on fossil arthropods. The genial and kindly presence of the master in this field will be remembered by all who attended. St^rmer was a devoted husband and father.

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