Preston Cloud
Preston Ercelle Cloud, Jr. (September 26, 1912 – January 16, 1991) was an American
earth scientist,
biogeologist,
cosmologist, and
paleontologist. He served in the
United States Navy (in which he was a
bantamweight boxing champion), and led several field explorations of the
U.S. Geological Survey. In academia, he was a member of the faculty of
Harvard University,
University of Minnesota,
University of California, Los Angeles, and lastly
University of California, Santa Barbara. He was best known for his work on the
geologic time scale and the
origin of life on
Earth, and as a pioneering
ecologist and
environmentalist. His works on the significance of
Cambrian fossils in the 1940s led to the development of the concept "
Cambrian explosion," for which he coined the phrase "eruptive evolution."
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