Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh

Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh
Born(1910-01-31)January 31, 1910
DiedJune 8, 1948(1948-06-08) (aged 38)
NationalitySwedish
Occupation(s)Palaeontologist and geologist
Parent(s)Gotthard Söderbergh (father)
Anna Säve (mother)
RelativesTorgny Säve-Söderbergh (brother)
Academic background
Alma materUppsala University

Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh (31 January 1910 – 8 June 1948) was a Swedish palaeontologist and geologist. Säve-Söderbergh was born at Falun, the son of the neurologist Gotthard Söderbergh and Inga Säve. He passed his G.C.E. at Gothenburg in 1928 and took bachelor's and licentiate's degrees at Uppsala University in 1931 and 1933, respectively. He was appointed professor of geology, historical geology in particular, at Uppsala in 1937.

Career

Säve-Söderbergh participated in Lauge Koch's Three-year Expedition to East Greenland in 1931-1934 and 1936. He brought back fossils of Ichthyostega, by then the earliest known tetrapod, and published an extensive preliminary report on it in 1932.[1] He also collected fossils on Cyprus (1930), in England and Scotland (1934), and Estonia (1936). Säve-Söderbergh went on to study the biostratigraphy of the East Greenland Palaeozoic[2][3][4] and the problem of skull bone homologies among fishes and tetrapods.[5] He also investigated the cranial anatomy of Triassic stegocephalians from East Greenland[6] and Spitsbergen[7] and of Devonian lungfish;[8][9] he intended to carry out a broad study of both Recent and fossil lungfish.

Other works by Säve-Söderbergh include a comparative study of the lateral line system[10] and an analysis of the trigeminal musculature in lower tetrapods.[11]

Death and legacy

Tuberculosis thwarted Säve-Söderbergh's career and he died in 1948.[12] He died at Solbacken, a sanatorium in Dalarna. His research on the Devonian tetrapod Ichthyostega was continued by Erik Jarvik.[13] Säve-Söderbergh was made an honorary doctor at Uppsala in 1942 and was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences shortly before his death. He was the elder brother of Egyptologist Torgny Säve-Söderbergh (1914–1998) and father of Bengt Säve-Söderbergh (b. 1940), former ambassador and State Secretary.

Biography

[By Erik Jarvik.] Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh. In: Svenska män och kvinnor: biografisk uppslagsbok, vol. 7, p. 413. Stockholm: Bonnier, 1954. [In Swedish.]

References

  1. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1932). Preliminary note on Devonian stegocephalians from East Greenland. Meddelelser om Gr¢nland, 94(7), 1-107.
  2. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1932). Notes on Devonian stratigraphy of East Greenland. Meddelelser om Gr¢nland, 94(4), 1-40.
  3. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1933). Further contributions to the Devonian stratigraphy of East Greenland. 1. Results from the summer expedition 1932. Meddelelser om Grønland, 96(1), 1-40.
  4. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1934). Further contributions to the Devonian stratigraphy of East Greenland. 2. Investigations on Gauss Peninsula during the summer of 1933. With an appendix: Notes on the geology of the Passage Hills (East Greenland). Meddelelser om Grønland, 96(2), 1-74.
  5. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1933). The dermal bones of the head and the lateral line system in Osteolepis macrolepidotus Ag. With remarks on the terminology of the lateral line system and on the dermal bones of certain other crossopterygians. Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis, (4)9, 1-129.
  6. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1935). On the dermal bones of the head in labyrinthodont stegocephalians and primitive Reptilia with special reference to Eotriassic stegocephalians from East Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland, 98(3), 1-211.
  7. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1936). On the morphology of Triassic stegocephalians from Spitsbergen, and the interpretation of the endocranium in the Labyrinthodontia. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, 3(16), 1-181.
  8. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1937). On Rhynchodipterus elginensis n.g., n.sp., representing a new group of dipnoan-like Choanata from the Upper Devonian of East Greenland and Scotland. Arkiv för Zoologi, 29B, 1-8.
  9. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1952). On the skull of Chirodipterus wildungensis Gross, an Upper Devonian Dipnoan from Wildungen. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, (4)3(4), 1-28.
  10. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1941). Notes on the dermal bones of the head in Osteolepis macrolepidotus Ag. and the interpretation of the lateral line system in certain primitive vertebrates. Zoologiska Bidrag från Uppsala, 20, 523-541
  11. ^ Säve-Söderbergh, G. (1945). Notes on the trigeminal musculature in non-mammalian tetrapods. Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis, (4)13, 1-59.
  12. ^ "Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh - Sommaires Biographiques de Personnes Notables - MyHeritage". www.myheritage.fr. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  13. ^ Prothero, Donald R. (2015-08-25). The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231539425.