Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (February 20, 1841 – April 10, 1906)[1] was an American paleontologist and geologist who wrote extensively on the theological and scientific implications of the theory of evolution.Born to a slave-holding family in Kentucky in 1841,[2] Shaler studied at Harvard College's Lawrence Scientific School under Louis Agassiz.[3] After graduating in 1862, Shaler went on to become a Harvard fixture in his own right, as lecturer (1868), professor of paleontology for two decades (1869–1888) and as professor of geology for nearly two more (1888–1906).[4] Beginning in 1891, he was dean of the Lawrence School.[1] Shaler was appointed director of the Kentucky Geological Survey in 1873, and devoted a part of each year until 1880 to that work.[5] In 1884 he was appointed geologist to the U.S. Geological Survey in charge of the Atlantic division.[6] He was commissioner of agriculture for Massachusetts at different times, and was president of the Geological Society of America in 1895.[1] He also served two years as a Union officer in the American Civil War Less