Uploaded December 2012 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Simon Conway Morris is an English paleontologist who is best known for his detailed and careful study of the Burgess Shale fossils. The results of these discoveries were celebrated in Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould.
Morris studied geology at Bristol University, achieving a First Class Honours degree. He then moved to Cambridge University and studied for a Ph.D 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 Lectures in 1996. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at age 39, was awarded the Walcott Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987 and the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1998.
A Christian, he is also actively involved in various science and religion debates, including arguments against intelligent design on the one hand and materialism on the other.
Simon Conway Morris is an English paleontologist who is best known for his detailed and careful study of the Burgess Shale fossils. The results of these discoveries were celebrated in Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould.
Morris studied geology at Bristol University, achieving a First Class Honours degree. He then moved to Cambridge University and studied for a Ph.D 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 Lectures in 1996. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at age 39, was awarded the Walcott Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987 and the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1998.
A Christian, he is also actively involved in various science and religion debates, including arguments against intelligent design on the one hand and materialism on the other.
