Presidents of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Craig Call Black (1932–1998) was an American paleontologist noted for his studies of the vertebrate mammals of the Ice Age. He served as the director of the Museum of Texas Tech University 1972-1975, Carnegie Museum of Natural History 1975-1982 and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 1982-1994. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to serve on the National Museum Services Board. In 1985, Reagan nominated him to serve on the National Science Board for a period of five years succeeding David V. Ragone. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush appointed him to serve on the Environment for the Americas Board.

Malcolm Carnegie McKenna (1930–2008) was an American paleontologist and author on the subject.

Richard Hall Tedford (April 25, 1929 – July 15, 2011) was Curator Emeritus in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, having been named as curator in 1969.Born in Encino, California, he received a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles with a major in chemistry and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1959.Tedford was one of the foremost authorities on the evolution of Carnivores and had been working, often with Prof. Xiaoming Wang, on the fossil history of the Canidae establishing the basis on the evolutionary relationship of canids over the past 40 million years.Tedford was a resident of Demarest, New Jersey at the time of his death on July 15, 2011, having earlier lived in nearby Cresskill. After suffering from colon cancer, his death followed a skull fracture that resulted from an accidental fall in his home.For his work on tertiary mammals uncovered at the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh), he was commemorated in the epithet of an Eocene microbat species Rhinonicteris tedfordi.