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by comparison. (Stephen Jay Gould has disputed this long-held view in his
recent book,
Full House.
Gould quotes the work of two paleontologists who
used fractals to characterize the complexity of ammonite sutures and con-
cluded that this increasing complexity is less cleat-cut than has been sup-
posed. This may well be, for there
are
reversions toward simplicity in some
lineages, most noticeably in a gtoup of Cretaceous ammonites called the
neoceratites. All in all, however, a pervasive trend toward increasing com-
plexity clearly occurs in most evolving ammonite lineages.)
In the 1930s a new paleontologist arrived at Tubingen, and his bril-
liance eclipsed even that of his illustrious predecessors. Otto Schindewolf ar-
rived at Tubingen as a young professor and proceeded to become the most in-
fluential paleontologist of his generation. Schindewolf considered many
large-scale questions, such as the nature of evolution and mutation rate, the
cause of mass extinctions, and, of course (like all good German paleontolo-
gists), the curious evolution and pattern of ammonite sutures. Schindewolf
was so gifted that he not only attracted German students but also drew young
paleontologists to his labs and lecture halls from across the seas. These disci-
ples included young Geotge Gaylord Simpson, an American paleontologist
who was to reach the top of his profession as well.
Schindewolf kept teaching and conducting research even during
World War II, and soon thereafter a succession of outstanding ammonite
workers were graduated from Tubingen, including Dolph Seilacher, Jost
Wiedmann, Jurgen Kullman, and the man whose name was to become syn-
onymous with the functional morphology of ammonites and theit complex
suture, Gerd Westermann.
Thanks to a providential attack of jaundice, Westermann just missed
being sent to the eastern front as a boy soldier. Soon after the wat, he was
conscripted by the victorious allies as a coal miner, but he soon escaped that
fate and completed his Ph.D. under Schindewolf's supervision. With degree
in hand he immigrated to Canada, where he received a university post in the
early 1960s. Westermann quickly rose through the professorial ranks at his
college, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Much of his early work
was on the biostratigtaphy of Jurassic ammonites, and like all good German
