Joseph Burr Tyrrell
Joseph Burr Tyrrell (born November 1, 1858 in Weston, Ontario (now Toronto ), † August 26, 1957 ) was a Canadian paleontologist and geologist , mining entrepreneur and explorer.
Life
Tyrrell was born in Weston, a town founded by his father (an Irish immigrant and wealthy stonemason ) that later became part of Toronto. He attended Upper Canada College with the degree in 1876 and then the University of Toronto , where he studied law at the insistence of his father and graduated in 1880. But he was mainly interested in biology and geology, which he studied privately. At first he worked as a lawyer, but in 1881 he went to the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in Ottawa after he had lung disease and the doctor advised him to stay outdoors. In 1883 George Mercer Dawson invited him to a geological expedition of the GSC in the largely unpopulated Canadian west in preparation for a planned railway line to the west. In 1884 he discovered coal deposits in the Drumheller area and on the same occasion discovered dinosaur fossils. In 1893/4 he took part in expeditions to the Canadian Arctic (on the Dubawnt River and in the Kivalliq region in the largely unexplored Barren Lands ), accompanied by his younger brother James. In 1898 he was infected by the Klondike gold rush , left the GSC in 1899 and opened a consultancy for gold prospectors in Dawson City . In 1907 he moved with his company to Toronto, on the one hand to be closer to his family, on the other hand to benefit from the cobalt and silver mining in northern Ontario. In 1924 he invested in a gold mine on Kirkland Lake in Northern Ontario, which made him a millionaire. He later had an apple tree plantation near Toronto, which later became part of the zoo.
On June 9, 1884, on an expedition led by him to search for coal, he discovered dinosaur fossils (of the predatory dinosaur Albertosaurus including skull) in the Badlands of Alberta, in a remote area on the Red Deer River , which, after the first discoveries by Tyrrell, was one of the most important sites for dinosaurs. The finds were examined by Edward Drinker Cope in the USA (and first called Laelaps incrassatus , in 1905 by Henry Fairfield Osborn Albertosaurus ). The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is named after him.
In 1918 he received the Murchison Medal and in 1947 the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London . He received the Back Award of the Royal Geographical Society , the Daly Medal of the American Geographical Society , and in 1933 the Flavelle Medal of the Royal Society of Canada . A school in Scarborough , where he retired to, is named after him.
In 1897 he published a paper with the British Association for the Advancement of Science , which confirmed Louis Agassiz 's theory of glaciation during the Ice Age (glacial scarring on granites in Manitoba). He had been married since 1894 and had three children.
He also edited the records of cartographer David Thompson , who worked for the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company , from the late 18th century. He had studied his notes in preparation for his expeditions to the Barren Lands in 1893/4.
literature
- Alexis Inglis Northern Vagabond: The Life and Career of JB Tyrrell, the Man Who Conquered the Canadian North , McClelland & Stewart, 1978
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mercer had already found the first dinosaur fossils there
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tyrrell, Joseph Burr |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian geologist and paleontologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1, 1858 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Weston, Ontario |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 26, 1957 |