Alexander Wetmore

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Alexander Wetmore (left), 1969

Alexander Wetmore (born June 18, 1886 in North Freedom , Wisconsin as Frank Alexander Wetmore , † December 7, 1978 in Glen Echo , Maryland ) was an American ornithologist and paleontologist .

Life

Wetmore was the son of Nelson Franklin and Emma Amelia (nee Woodworth) Wetmore. His father was a country doctor. In 1912 he received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kansas , in 1916 his Master of Science from George Washington University and finally his doctorate in zoology in 1920. In 1912 he married Fay Holloway. From 1905 to 1908 he was an assistant in the Natural History Museum of the University of Kansas and in 1909 assistant at the Denver Museum of Natural History . From 1910 he worked in the Department of Biological Research at the United States Department of Agriculture before he was appointed Assistant Secretary at the Smithsonian Institution in 1925 . From 1945 to 1952 he was secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In this role he was partly responsible for the fact that the Smithsonian Institution had contractually recognized the Wright brothers as the first pioneers of powered flight in 1948 .

In 1930 his standard work A Systematic Classification for the Birds of the World appeared , the order of the bird families of which became known as the “Wetmore Order” and was widely accepted by ornithologists of the 20th century. Revised editions appeared in 1951 and 1960. Other significant works were Birds of Haiti and the Dominican Republic (1931) and The Birds of the Republic of Panamá (1965).

Research work

Wetmore's first research trip took him to Puerto Rico in 1911 , where he studied bird life. In 1918 he described the remains of the extinct ralle Nesotrochis debooyi , which were discovered by Theodoor de Booy in 1916 . In 1920 Wetmore wrote his doctoral thesis entitled "The Birds of Porto Rico". Between 1920 and 1921 he studied in South America , the bird walks between the continents.

Wetmore is the first to describe over 189 bird taxas. More than 50 animal and plant species have been named after him, including the fossil genera Alexornis and Presbyornis as well as the Wetmoreralle ( Rallus wetmorei ), violet-shouldered tangare ( Wetmorethraupis sterrhopteron ), the Wetmore-tangar ( Buthraupis wetmorei ) and a subspecies of the rose-shouldered pigeon ( Godfather pigeon ) inornata wetmorei ).

In 1948, Wetmore was secretary responsible for ensuring that the Smithsonian Institution had contractually recognized the Wright brothers as the first pioneers of powered flight .

Awards

In 1927 Wetmore was awarded the Isidore-Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire Medal of the French nature conservation association Société nationale de protection de la nature , in 1931 he received the Otto Herman Medal of the French ornithological association Société hongroise d'ornithologie , in 1959 he received the William Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), of which he was director from 1926 to 1929. The committee gave the following reason:

For the past generation, Dr. Wetmore the leading specialist in fossil birds in North America. The large number of his works are summarized in "A check-list of the fossil and prehistoric birds of North America and the West Indies", which we would like to mention here in particular. Dr. Wetmore's contribution to our science is not limited to the paleontology of birds. The breadth of his interests and the extent of his efforts are manifested in the books and writings he published year after year as a result of his research. The books include tomes such as "Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands", "The migration of birds", "Observations on the birds of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile", "The birds of Haiti and the Dominican republic "and last but not least the fifth edition of the AOU publication" Check-list of North American birds: according to the canons of nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union ", which was created under his leadership. With Alexander Wetmore we praise a biologist who, during his 50-year career, has to be named as one of the architects of American ornithology. "

In 1972 he received the Elliott Coues Medal, another recognition from the AOU. In 1946 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. In 1961 he became an honorary member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology . In 1930 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society . Since 1945 he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences .

In gratitude for Wetmore's contribution to the development of the scientific program of the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (1947–1948), its leader, Finn Ronne, named the Wetmore Glacier on the east coast of the Palmerland after him.

Publications (selection)

  • "The Book of Birds" (1932)
  • "A check-list of the fossil birds of North America" ​​(1940), Washington
  • "A Checklist of the Fossil and Prehistoric Birds of North America and the West Indies" (1940, 1956)
  • "Song and Garden Birds of North America" ​​(1964)
  • "Water Prey and Game Birds of North America" ​​(1965)
  • "The Birds of Panama" 4 volumes (1968)

Literature on Alexander Wetmore

  • Bo Beolens & Michael Watkins (2003). Whose Bird? Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate. Yale University Press (New Haven & London).
  • Allen G. Debus (dir.) (1968). World Who's Who in Science. A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Scientists from Antiquity to the Present. Marquis-Who's Who (Chicago)

Individual evidence

  1. The Auk, Vol 77, No. 1, 1960 The Seventy-Seventh Stated Meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union Original article (PDF file; 658 kB)
  2. ^ Member History: Alexander Wetmore. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 9, 2018 .

Web links

Commons : Alexander Wetmore  - collection of images, videos and audio files