Williamson, Donald I. 1922- (Donald Irving Williamson)

PERSONAL:

Born January 8, 1922, in Alnham, Northumberland, England; son of Henry (a head teacher) and Annie Willan (a teacher and homemaker) Williamson; married first wife June 1, 1953; wife's name Marian (divorced, 1986); married Enid Rossiter (an industrial radiologist), September 6, 1986; children: Janet Williamson Norris, Catie Williamson Angus. Ethnicity: "European." Education: University of Durham, B.Sc., 1942, B.Sc. (with honors), 1946, Ph.D., 1948; University of Newcastle upon Tyne, D.Sc., 1972. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Atheist." Hobbies and other interests: Amateur acting.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Port Erin, Isle of Man. E-mail—diwilliamson@manx.net.

CAREER:

University of Liverpool, Port Erin Marine Laboratory, Port Erin, Isle of Man, began as assistant lecturer, became reader in marine biology, 1948-87, honorary fellow, 1987—. International Indian Ocean Expedition, senior specialist on decapod crustacean larvae, 1967—. Military service: Royal Navy, 1942-44; became sub-lieutenant.

MEMBER:

Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Systematics Association.

WRITINGS:

Larvae and Evolution: Toward a New Zoology, Chapman & Hall (New York, NY), 1992, revised edition published as Origins of Larvae, Kluwer Academic (Boston, MA), 2003.

(Editor, with H. Gourko and A.I. Tauber) The Evolutionary Biology Papers of Elie Metchnikoff, Kluwer Academic (Boston, MA), 2000.

Contributor to books, including The Biology of Crustacea, Academic Press, 1982; Aspects of Decapod Crustacean Biology, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1988; Organism and the Origins of Self, Kluwer Academic, 1991; What We Believe but Cannot Prove, Simon & Schuster (England), 2005; and Treatise on Zoology: The Crustacea, E.J. Brill (Leiden, Netherlands), 2006. Contributor to scientific journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Donald I. Williamson once told CA: "I am a retired academic biologist, with controversial views on evolution. All my recent writing has been on larval transfer, an aspect of evolution that Darwin never considered. I am trying to convince biologists that the theory of evolution is itself still evolving.

"Darwin assumed that larvae have always evolved with their corresponding adults. I agree with Darwin that natural selection has played an extremely important part in evolution, but I believe that another process, unknown to Darwin, has also had a profound effect on the evolution of larvae. Several groups of animals seem to have the ‘wrong’ larvae. There is a wealth of evidence for, and none against, the view that some larval forms, which originally evolved in a Darwinian manner, later appeared in very distantly related animals, implying that the genes prescribing the larva had been transferred.

"Larval transfer seeks to resolve this anomaly by suggesting that the basic forms of all embryos and larvae (or the genes that specify them) have occasionally been transferred from one group to another, and they can all be traced back to animals with no larvae. This hypothesis offers the first comprehensive explanation of the origins of embryos and larvae, and interprets metamorphosis as change from one group of animals to another during development. My theories were originally based on the shapes of animals and their larvae, but now they are supported by evidence from gene sequencing. I have also demonstrated larval transfer from a sea urchin to an ascidian by hybridization in the laboratory.

"I am learning by experience that, although some biologists welcome new ideas, most of those in influential positions do not. I have had great difficulty in getting my ideas published. Early attempts to publish my radical proposals were rejected for specious or fatuous reasons, but eventually some editors asked for my manuscripts, and an increasing number of biologists are now prepared to discuss my ideas."

Williamson later added: "In 1990 I fell on my head, had a stroke, and lost the use of my right hand. Since then, all my writings have been single-handed—with my left hand."