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Born in New York, New York.
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His father took him to the American Museum of Natural History when Gould was five years old. It was here that Gould saw his first dinosaur, a Tyrannosaurus rex, and decided that he was going to devote his life to the study of geologic periods.
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Elizabeth becomes Queen.
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Completes Undergraduate degree in geology at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
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He marries Deborah Lee, an artist and writer, whom he met at Antioch College. They have two children together, Jesse and Ethan.
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He leaves New York to become a Professor of Geology at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
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Receives his Ph.D. in paleontology at Columbia University in New York.
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Gould moves to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to take an assistant professorship for geology at Harvard University. In that same year he finished his doctoral work, completing his degree program from Columbia.
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He is promoted to associate professor of geology at Harvard University.
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Gould and a colleague, Niles Eldredge, made a notable contribution to the development of evolutionary theory in what they called "punctuated equilibrium." The concept of punctuated equilibrium opposed Darwin's notion, known as phyletic gradualism, that evolutionary change occurred gradually and over millions of years; instead, Gould and Eldredge argued such changes occurred in relatively shorter periods (several thousand years) following long periods of stability.
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He is promoted to a full professor of geology at Harvard University.
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Gould also became curator (a person who oversees an exhibit or show) of invertebrate (species without a backbone) paleontology at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.
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Receives the Schuchert Award by the Paleontological Society for his work in evolutionary theory. It is presented to a person under 40 whose work reflects excellence and promise in the science of paleontology.
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In 1977 Gould published a book-length discussion of phyletic gradualism called Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Phyletic gradualism theorizes that most speciation is slow, uniform, and gradual.
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For his book, The Panda's Thumb, he received two awards: the Notable Book citation from the American Library Association in 1980 and the American Book Award in Science for 1981.
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He received two awards for The Mismeasure of Man: the National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction in 1981 and the American Book Award nomination in science for 1982.
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Gould was told he had mesothelioma, a particularly deadly form of cancer in which he was told he only had 8 months to live. But the disease had been caught early and he underwent an aggressive program of treament including radiation and chemotherapy.
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Gould divorces Deborah Lee.
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Gould marries Rhonda Roland Shearer, an artist and sculptor.
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Died in Manhattan, New York. Early in 2002 Gould was discovered to have advanced lung cancer, apparently unrelated to his previous cancer in which he died several months later.
