Björn Kurtén
Björn Kurtén was a Finnish vertebrate paleontologist and science fiction writer.
Early life and education
Kurtén was born in Vaasa in 1924 to Lennart Joachim Kurten and Hjördis Rose Ståhlberg. He was a member of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. He graduated from the Vasa Svenska Samskola in 1943, but his education was interrupted by World War II, and he did not resume studies until he finished his military service in 1945.
He took courses in the University of Helsinki studying zoology, chemistry, geology, and paleontology. He went on to study the Hipparion genus in Uppsala, Sweden, publishing his first scientific paper on the genus in 1952 before earning his PhD from the University of Helsinki in 1954. Kurtén said that he chose paleontology as his career path because he did not want to do anything "useful".
Scientific career
After receiving his PhD, Kurtén became a Docent at the University of Helsinki, a position he held until 1972. From 1972 until his death, he was a Professor at the university. Throughout his career, he frequently traveled to study paleontological collections throughout Europe and North America. He also did field work in Sweden, Spain, and Tunisia. He received several fellowships from foreign institutions and lectured at Harvard University.
He was a prominent writer of popular science. For his work in popular science, he received numerous awards including the Finnish state award for popular dissemination of knowledge, Counsellor of state Mauritz Hallberg's prize and UNESCO's Kalinga Prize. He was also awarded MTV:n kulttuuripalkinto in 1984.
Kurtén's research focused primarily on carnivorans, particularly prehistoric bears and hyenas. He wrote fifteen papers and one book about prehistoric bears and was the first person to study allometry in fossil teeth.
Fiction
Kurtén wrote his first novel in his late teens. He wrote in the genre of prehistoric fiction, combining elements of paleontology with science fiction. He authored a series of books about encounters between humans and Neanderthals, such as Dance of the Tiger. His works of fiction have been translated into over fourteen languages, although only two of his novels, Dance of the Tiger and Singletusk, have been translated into English.
Personal life
Kurtén married Ruth Nordman in 1950, and they had four children named Solveig, Joachim, Andrea, and Marina. He and his family spent summers on Stängesholmen, where they enjoyed birding, walking, and picking berries. Kurtén enjoyed the sauna, and often went straight from the sauna into cold ocean water, which he said brought out his "viking blood". He did most of his writing in Stängesholmen.
Death and legacy
Kurtén died in Helsinki in 1988 due to complications following brain surgery. The University of Helsinki has a paleontological club called the Björn Kurtén Club, named in his honor. Nordenskiöld-samfundet i Finland has an award named after him, the Björn Kurtén-award, given for "scientific or artistic achievements related to Kurtén's broad field of activity." The prehistoric cat species Prionailurus kurteni was named after Kurtén in 2024.
Fiction
Det nya jaktplanet, Schildt 1941Spåret från Ultima Esperanza, Bro 1945De tre korsen, Schildt 1948Den svarta tigern, Alba 197863 förstenade hjärtan, Alba 1980Mammutens rådare, Alba 1984
Scientific works (in alphabetical order)
A history of coyote-like dogs, Societas scientarum Fennica 1974A radiocarbon date for the cave bear remains from Odessa, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1969Age groups in fossil mammals, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1953An attempted parallelization of the Quaternary mammalian faunas of China and Europe, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1960Bears and bear-dogs from the Vallesian of the Vallés-Penedés basin, Spain ; Written with Miguel Crusafont i Pairó, Societas scientarum Fennica 1976Before the Indians, Columbia University Press 1988Chronology and faunal evolution of the earlier European glaciations, Socieas scientiarum Fennica 1960Continental drift and the palaeogeography of reptiles and mammals, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1967Den felande länken, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1962Faunal turnover dates for the Pleistocene and late Pliocene, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1960Fossil Glutton from Tornewton Cave, South Devon, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1973Geographic variation in size in the puma, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1973Holarctic land connexions in the early Tertiary, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1966Late-glacial find of arctic fox from southwestern Finland, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1966Life and death of the pleistocene cave bear, Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1958Människans ursprung och utveckling, Bibliotekstjänst 1982Människans utveckling, Aldus/Bonnier 1963Människans utvecklingshistoria; Ihmisen kehityshistoria, Yleisradio 1973Några drag ur människans tidiga utvecklingshistoria, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1959Några paleobiogeografiska problemställningarl, 1971Observations on allometry in mammalian dentitions, Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica 1954On evolution and fossil mammals, Columbia University Press 1988On the articulation between the thoracic tergites of some common trilobite forms, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1949On the bears of the Holsteinian interglacial, 1959On the date of Peking Man, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1960On the evolution of the European wild cat, Felis silvestris Schreber ; Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1965On the longevity of mammalian species in the Tertiary, Socieas scientiarum Fennica 1958On the variation and population dynamics of fossil and recent mammal populations, Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1953Pleistocene bears of North America 1, Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1966Pleistocene bears of North America 2, Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1967Pleistocene jaguars in North America, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1973Pleistocene mammals and the Bering bridge, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1966Pleistocene mammals of Europe, Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1968Pleistocene mammals of North America; Written with Elaine Anderson, Columbia University Press 1980Sex dimorphism and size trends in the cave bear, Ursus spelaeus Rosenmüller and Heinroth, Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1955The age of mammals, Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1971The age of the Austral-opithecinae, University of Stockholm 1960The Carnivora of the Palestine caves, Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1965The Chinese Hipparion fauna, 1952The evolution of the polar bear, Ursus maritimus Phipps ; Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1964The Neogene wolverine Plesiogulo and the origin of Gulo, Societas pro Fauna et flora Fennica 1970The spotted hyena from the middle Pleistocene of Mosbach at Wiesbaden, Germany ''; Societas scientiarum Fennica 1962The type collection of Ictitherium robustum and the radiation of the Ictitheres ; Societas pro fauna et flora Fennica 1954Time and hominid brain size, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1971Transberingian relationship of Ursus arctos Linné ,'' Societas scientarum Fennica 1973Urmänniskor och sabeltigrar, Schildt 1961Villafranchian Carnivores from La Puebla de Valverde, written with Miguel Crusafont i Pairó, Societas scientarum Fennica 1976Villfrancian faunal evolution, Societas scientiarum Fennica 1963Våra äldsta förfäder, Liber 1986