Simon Conway Morris

Simon Conway Morris FRS (born 6 November 1951) is an English palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist, and astrobiologist known for his study of the fossils of the Burgess Shale and the Cambrian explosion. The results of these discoveries were celebrated in Stephen Jay Gould's 1989 book Wonderful Life. Conway Morris's own book on the subject, The Crucible of Creation (1998), however, is critical of Gould's presentation and interpretation. Conway Morris held the Chair of Evolutionary Palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge between 1995 and 2019 and is now Emeritus Professor. Conway Morris was born on 6 November 1951 in Carshalton, Surrey. He was brought up in London, England, and went on to study geology at Bristol University, achieving a First Class Honours degree. He then moved to Cambridge University and completed a PhD at St John's College under Harry Blackmore Whittington. He is professor of evolutionary palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge. He is renowned for his insights into early evolution and his studies of paleobiology. He gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture in 1996 on the subject of The History in our Bones.