author

Theodore Elmer White

1905–1977

A pioneering American paleontologist and zooarchaeologist, he helped show how animal remains can reveal the way people lived in the past. His work also shaped methods archaeologists still use to study bone collections.

1 Audiobook

The Dinosaur Quarry. Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado-Utah

The Dinosaur Quarry. Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado-Utah

by John M. (John Maxwell) Good, Gilbert F. Stucker, Theodore Elmer White

About the author

Born in Garnett, Kansas, on December 8, 1905, Theodore Elmer White studied zoology at the University of Kansas before earning a PhD in zoology from the University of Michigan in 1935. Over time, his interests moved from herpetology and mammalogy into osteology, paleontology, and the close study of animal bones.

He worked at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Anatomy, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and later worked for the Smithsonian's River Basin Surveys. In 1953 he joined Dinosaur National Monument as its first paleontologist, a role that linked him closely with both fossil research and public understanding of the ancient past.

White is remembered as an important early figure in zooarchaeology. He helped demonstrate that animal remains found at archaeological sites could be used to interpret human behavior, and he also contributed to the development of the Minimum Number of Individuals method used to analyze skeletal assemblages. He died on September 7, 1977.