Harry Govier Seeley
Harry Govier Seeley (born February 18, 1839 in London , † January 8, 1909 in Kensington ) was a British paleontologist . The division of dinosaurs into lizard-like dinosaurs (Saurischia) and pelvic dinosaurs (Ornithischia), which is still recognized today, goes back to him .
Life
Harry Govier Seeley was born in London on February 18, 1839; his parents were the goldsmith Richard Hovill Seeley and his second wife Mary Govier. Harry attended the Royal School of Mines in Kensington. In 1859 he became assistant to Adam Sedgwick in the Woodwardian Museum in Cambridge . In 1863 he enrolled as a student at Sidney Sussex College , Cambridge. He turned down offers from the British Museum and the Geological Society of London to work independently. However, he later accepted a position at King's College , Cambridge.
In 1872 he moved to London. At the local King's College , Queen's College and Bedford College he was from 1876 professor of geography , also lecturer for geology and physiology at Dulwich College . From 1896 to 1905 he was Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at King's College.
In 1872 he married Eleonora Jane, daughter of William Mitchell of Bath . He was the father-in-law of Arthur Smith Woodward . Harry Govier Seeley died on January 8, 1909 in Kensington and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery , London.
Scientific work
Before Seeley's division of dinosaurs into lizard-like dinosaurs (Saurischia) and pelvic dinosaurs (Ornithischia) based on their pelvic anatomy, paleontologists classified the dinosaurs according to different characteristics , taking into account the structure of the feet or the shape of the teeth. Seeley published his scientific results in 1888 (based on a lecture from the previous year), according to which, to put it simply, the ornithischians were characterized by a two-jet tank and the dinosaurs by a three-jet tank. Seeley regarded the two groups as very different and took the view of a separate origin ( polyphyly ). It was not until the 1980s that cladistic analyzes were used to show that the two groups descended from a common, Triassic ancestor ( monophyly ). In his career , Seeley described numerous dinosaurs.
In 1887 he received an invitation from the Royal Society to hold the annual Croonian Lecture . It was entitled: On Pareiasaurus bombidens (Owen) and the significance of its affinities to amphibians, reptiles, and mammals .
His book on pterosaurs , "Dragons of the Air" from 1901, concludes that pterosaurs and birds have numerous parallels. Although his idea of a common origin turned out to be wrong, he rejected Richard Owen's description of the pterosaurs as cold- blooded , sluggish gliders and recognized that they must have been warm-blooded animals that, like birds, were capable of active flight ( flapping flight ).
As a dilettante, he wrote a small, but well-researched book about European freshwater fish (1886).
Membership in scientific societies
Harry Govier Seeley was admitted to the Royal Society as a member (" Fellow ") in 1879 . Since December 1902 he was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg . He was also a member of the Linnaeus Society , the Geological Society of London and the Zoological Society of London .
Fonts
- On Neusticosaurus pusillus (Fraas), an Amphibious Reptile having Affinities with the Terrestrial Nothosauria and with the Marine Plesiosauria. In: Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London, 38, Pl VIII, London 1882, pp. 350-366
swell
- Entry to Seeley; Harry Govier (1839-1909) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
Individual evidence
- ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Harry Govier Seeley. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 23, 2015 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Seeley, Harry Govier |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Seeley, Harry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British paleontologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 18, 1839 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 8, 1909 |
| Place of death | Kensington (London) |