Oldfield Thomas

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Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas, painting by John Ernest Breun

Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas FRS FZS (born February 21, 1858 in Millbrook , Bedfordshire ; died June 16, 1929 ), Oldfield Thomas for short , was a British zoologist . His zoological author's name is " Thomas ". Thomas worked for more than 50 years at the British Museum in London and its natural history department, later the Natural History Museum , in the field of mammals , of which he described about 2000 species and subspecies for the first time.

Life

Oldfield Thomas was born in Millbrook, Bedfordshire, England , in 1858, the son of the priest Reverend JH Thomas, who was later called to the archdeaconate in Cape Town , South Africa . Oldfield Thomas spent his youth in South Africa and began to study nature there. He collected insects in the area of Table Mountain . On his return to England his father became vicar in Hillingdon near Uxbridge in west London . Thomas was sent to Haileybury College in Hertford , but was a comparatively poor student. At the age of 18 he began training in the office of the British Museum in Bloomsbury , in which the science collections were a large part. Thomas was hoping for a job as an assistant in the zoological department, which at the time was headed by the German zoologist Albert Günther . With this plan, he attended lectures with Thomas Henry Huxley in South Kensington for two years . In 1878 he was actually transferred as an assistant to the zoological department and, after starting out with invertebrates, especially echinoderms , started his career in the mammalogical department on the instructions of Günther .

In 1891 he married Mary Kane, the daughter of Sir Andrew Clark . Their financial means enabled Thomas to pay collectors for the museum and to purchase a large number of mammalian collectibles, which he gradually described.

Thomas retired in 1923, but worked at the museum until his death in 1929.

supporting documents

  1. ^ A b John Edwards Hill: A memoir and biobliography of Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas, RFS Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 18, 1990; P. 26.

literature

Web links

Commons : Oldfield Thomas  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Oldfield
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomas, Michael Rogers Oldfield
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Millbrook, Bedfordshire
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1929