Henry Fairfield Osborn - Biography

Palaeontologist and educator, born in Fairfield, Connecticut, USA. He taught natural sciences at Princeton (1881–91) and biology at Columbia University (1891–1907). In 1891 he organized the department of mammalian palaeontology at the American Museum of Natural History. As the museum's president (1908–35), he developed it into the world's largest natural history museum. His bibliography includes more than 600 scientific titles, most notably on reptilian and mammalian evolution, and he is credited with originating the term ‘adaptive radiation’.