Oliver Perry Hay

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Oliver Perry Hay (born May 22, 1846 in Saluda , Indiana , † November 2, 1930 in Washington, DC ) was an American zoologist and vertebrate paleontologist . He was particularly influential through the museum catalogs of fossil vertebrates that he compiled.

Hay studied at Eureka College in Illinois with a bachelor's degree in 1870 and was then professor there and from 1874 to 1876 at Oskaloosa College in Iowa . In 1876/77 he studied again at Yale University . He was from 1879 to 1892 professor of biology and geology at Butler University (Butler College) in Indianapolis , where he was involved in the founding of the Indiana Academy of Sciences and 1890/91 its president. In 1884 he received his doctorate from Indiana University . In 1889 he went on his first fossil-collecting field trip in western Kansas. From 1884 to 1888 he was an assistant at the Arkansas Geological Survey and from 1891 to 1894 at the Indiana Geological Survey.

From 1895 to 1897 he was Assistant Curator for Zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History . From 1901 to 1907 he was assistant, then associate curator and finally curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History . During this time he published his catalog of the fossil vertebrates of North America in 1902, which became a standard work. From 1907 to 1911 he worked as a private scholar in paleontology. In 1912 he became a Research Associate at the Carnegie Institution and at the National Museum of Natural History . From 1917 to 1926 he was an associate at the Carnegie Institution.

He was a specialist in fossil fish, but also dealt with other vertebrate animals, for example Pleistocene mammals and fossil turtles.

From 1902 to 1905 he was co-editor of the American Geologist magazine .

His son William Perry Hay (1871-1947) was also a zoologist and studied reptiles and crustaceans.

Fonts

  • Bibliography and Catalog of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America , Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey, Washington 1902
  • The Pleistocene of North America , 3 volumes, 1925 to 1927
  • The Fossil Turtles of North America , 1908

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hay, Oliver Perry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American zoologist and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Saluda (Indiana)
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1930
Place of death Washington, DC