Allan Riverstone McCulloch
Allan Riverstone McCulloch (born June 20, 1885 in Concord, a western suburb of Sydney , † September 1, 1925 in Honolulu ) was an Australian zoologist and ichthyologist.
He is the son of barrister Herbert Riverstone McCulloch and his wife Ella Maude.
McCulloch was interested in zoology from an early age and began working as an unpaid assistant at the Australian Museum in Sydney at the age of 13 . Three years later he became a technical assistant and five years later the curator of the museum's fish department, a position he held until his death in 1925. He was an obsessed collector and published a number of scientific papers, including many initial descriptions . After its first publication in 1906, not a year went by without an important scientific publication. In total, he wrote over 100 works by the time he died, many of them with his own illustrations . He took part in several research trips that took him to Queensland , Lord Howe Island , New Guinea, as well as many Pacific islands and the Great Barrier Reef . His main interest was in fish , but he was also in charge of the crustacean collection at the Australian Museum from 1905 to 1921 . He wrote several important papers on decapods .
McCulloch's almost hectic research, however, appears to have damaged his health. He had to be on leave for health reasons, but died a few months later in Honolulu in 1925. He left behind a collection that ultimately comprised 40,000 species. Much of his work was only published after his death, including the results of his voyage on the research ship " Endeavor ", in which he described numerous new species. The American zoologist David Starr Jordan called him " the greatest authority on fish in the southern hemisphere ". A memorial stone was erected on Lord Howe Island in his honor.
He was a member of the local Linnaeus Society and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales .
literature
- Allan Riverstone McCulloch: Report on some fishes obtained by the FIS "Endeavor" on the coasts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South and South-Western Australia . Part V. Biol. Results "Endeavor", 1926, pp. 157-216.
- C. Anderson & Gilbert Percy Whitley : Allan Riverstone McCulloch, 1885-1925 [obituary and bibliography]. Records of the Australian Museum, 15, 2, pages 141–148, November 18, 1926. ( pdf , 1.4 MB)
- GP Walsh: McCulloch, Allan Riverstone (1885-1925) . In: Australian Dictionary of Biography . National Center of Biography, Australian National University, 1986. (accessed September 12, 2014).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | McCulloch, Allan Riverstone |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian zoologist and ichthyologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 20, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sydney |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 1, 1925 |
| Place of death | Honolulu |