Mary J. Rathbun

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Jane Rathbun, 1927

Mary Jane Rathbun (born June 11, 1860 in Buffalo , New York ; died April 4, 1943 in Washington, DC ) was an American marine biologist. She mainly worked on the taxonomy of crustaceans , describing over 1000 new species and numerous higher taxa .

biography

Mary Jane Rathbun was born in Buffalo , New York , in 1860 , the youngest of five daughters of Charles Rathbun and Jane Furey. Her mother died when she was one year old. She attended school in Buffalo and graduated in 1878, but she never went to college .

Rathbun first saw the ocean in 1881 when she accompanied her brother Richard Rathbun to Woods Hole , Massachusetts . He was hired as a research assistant for zoologist Addison Emery Verrill and worked with his chief assistant, carcinologist Sidney Irving Smith . She helped him sort, preserve and document the animals he had collected and then worked exclusively on crustaceans. Rathbun volunteered for her brother for three years before doing an internship with Spencer Fullerton Baird at the Smithsonian Institution .

She continued to work at the museum, largely unsupported, and after 28 years was promoted to assistant curator and was responsible for the crustacean department. From 1891 she published numerous works on crustaceans. In 1915, after her retirement, the Smithsonian Institution named Rathbun an "Honorary Research Associate" and in 1916 she was awarded an honorary master's degree by the University of Pittsburgh . In 1917 she received her doctorate from George Washington University .

Mary Jane Rathbun died in Washington, DC, on April 4, 1943, at the age of 82, after complications from a broken hip.

Scientific work

Mary J. Rathbun
Blue crab ( Callinectes sapidus )
Calappa flammea , depiction by Mary Jane Rathbun from 1902

She wrote Mary Jane Rathbun's first scientific publication with James Everard Benedict on the genus Panopeus . It was published in 1891. She retired in late 1914, but continued to work until shortly before her death. Between 1918 and 1937 she wrote four monographs on crabs . Her most extensive work Les crabes d'eau douce on freshwater crabs was originally planned as a single publication, but appeared in three volumes from 1904 to 1906. Overall, she was the author or co-author of 166 scientific publications, these being the first descriptions of 1147 new species and subspecies, Contained 63 new genera, a subfamily, three families and a superfamily. The taxa first described by Rathbun include important commercial species such as the blue crab ( Callinectes sapidus ) and Chionoecetes bairdi .

Dedication names

Due to her extensive scientific work, Mary Jane Rathbun was honored by numerous colleagues with dedication names that named numerous species after her:

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Waldo L. Schmitt: Mary J. Rathbun 1860-1943. Crustaceana 24 (3), 1973; Pp. 283-296. ( Full text ), doi : 10.1163 / 156854073x00641
  2. ↑ Mary Jane Rathbun. In: Encyclopedia Britannica; accessed on May 23, 2020.
  3. ↑ Peter KL Ng & Paul F. Clark: Three new genera of Indo-West Pacific Xanthidae (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Xanthoidea). Zoosystema 25 (1), 2003; Pp. 131-147. ( Full text )

Web links

Commons : Mary Jane Rathbun  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Rathbun, Mary J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rathbun, Mary Jane
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Buffalo , New York
DATE OF DEATH April 4, 1943
Place of death Washington, DC