James R. Tamsitt

James Ray Tamsitt (born November 22, 1928 in Big Spring , Texas , † January 25, 2013 in Austin , Texas) was an American zoologist and university professor. His main research interests were mammalogy and herpetology .

Life

Tamsitt was the son of Guy James and Steva May Tamsitt, née Kavanaugh. In 1951 he earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and in 1953 he graduated there with a Master of Arts. From 1957 to 1958 he was a lecturer in zoology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg , Canada . In 1958, he was under the direction of W. Frank Blair with the dissertation Genetic, social and ecological isolating mechanisms in the Peromyscus species truei group of mice at the University of Texas at Austin for Ph.D. PhD. From 1958 to 1959 he was a lecturer in biology at East Texas State University. From 1959 to 1963 he was professor in zoology at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá , Colombia. From 1963 to 1964 he was a lecturer in biology at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and 1964 to 1965 at the University of Connecticut in New Haven . From 1965 to 1967, during his post-doctoral phase, he was a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the Department of Medical Zoology at the University of Puerto Rico , Medical Sciences Campus, School of Medicine in San Juan , Puerto Rico .

From 1967 to 1973 he was associate curator and from 1973 to 1985 curator of the mammals division of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto , Canada. From 1968 to 1970 he was deputy editor of the Journal of Mammalogy . From 1969 to 1985 he was an adjunct professor of zoology at the University of Toronto . From 1970 to 1972 he was a member of the decision-making committee of the American Society of Mammalogists . He was also a member of Sigma Xi , the Herpetologists' League and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . From 1971 to 1973 and 1981 to 1984 he was the editor of the Royal Ontario Museum Life Sciences Miscellaneous Publication . In 1975 and 1982 he worked in Colombia with the support of a Fulbright-Hays scholarship . In 1975, 1982 and 1985 he was visiting professor at the Pontifical University of Xaveriana in Bogotá. In 1982 he was visiting professor at the Santander Industrial University in Bucaramanga . In 1982, 1984 and 1985 he was visiting professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá. From 1986 to 1988 he was a lecturer in biology at the University of Texas at Austin. From 1988 until his retirement in 1998 he was Professor of Biology in the Austin Community College District .

Tamsitt studied the ecology of frogs and small mammals, as well as the natural history , taxonomy, and ectoparasites of neotropical mammals. In 1968, together with Eugene Raymond Hall, he described the Puerto Rican subspecies Stenoderma rufum darioi of the red fruit vampire and, in collaboration with Randolph L. Peterson, the species Sturnira aratathomasi from the genus of the yellow-shouldered bats ( Sturnira ).

Doris Mable Cochran (posthumously) and Coleman J. Goin named the frog species Pristimantis tamsitti in honor of James R. Tamsitt in 1970.

James Ray Tamsitt. American Men & Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences, Gale, 2008. Biography In Context, Retrieved April 14, 2019.

personal data
SURNAME	Tamsitt, James R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Tamsitt, James Ray (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American zoologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH	November 22, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	Big Spring , Texas
DATE OF DEATH	January 25, 2013
Place of death	Texas , Texas