SOVIET UNION, 1947, 1952

Antipa   Kovalevsky   Karpinsky 1947
For years, I thought that the 1967 Romanian stamp with a portrait of palaeontologist G. Antipa and, in the background, a Deinotherium skeleton, was the oldest.
Michael Kogan, however, recently told me about earlier issues.
V. Kovalevsky (1842-1883) was a respected vertebrate palaeontologist who has worked on fossil horses. He is depicted on a 1952 Soviet Union issue, and identified a a geologist - palaeontologist.
Even earlier, in 1947, Soviet geologist A. Karpinsky (1846-1936) has been depicted on two Soviet Union stamps. Although mainly a petrologist and shown with a rock sample, he has also done palaeontological work.
There are still very few palaeontologists that have been honoured with a stamp.
 
TvE