Ralph W. Chaney

Ralph Works Chaney (born August 24, 1890 in Chicago , Illinois , † March 3, 1971 in Berkeley , California ) was an American paleobotanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " RWChaney ".

Chaney studied zoology, botany and finally geology (Bachelor 1912) at the University of Chicago . He was then a teacher and from 1914 paleontologist for invertebrates at the Missouri Geological Survey. After marrying in 1917, he became an instructor in geology at the University of Iowa . After receiving his doctorate in geology from the University of Chicago in 1919, he became an assistant professor in Iowa. He came in 1920 as a researcher at the Carnegie Institution in Washington at the University of California, Berkeley , where he became Professor and Head of the Department of Paleontology in 1931 and served as curator of paleobotany at the university's museum. In 1957 he retired. During World War II he headed the convening committee for the University of Berkeley (which determined the indispensability of members of the university) and was vice director of the Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Laboratory in 1944 .

He dealt in particular with the paleoecology of fossil plants, especially the Tertiary in North America and the Pacific region. In doing so, he introduced statistical analysis methods, for example by observing the relationship between plant collections in recent deposits and the surrounding flora. As early as the 1920s and 1930s he was involved in expeditions to Mongolia (as a participant in Roy Chapman Andrews' expedition in 1925) and China, but he also frequently visited Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. He was last in China in 1948 and brought back Metasequoia seeds from there , which were found in botanical gardens around the world. He was also active on conservation issues, particularly for the California sequoia (President of Save the Redwood League), and advised the National Park Service . In retirement he laid out a tertiary garden in his garden with a chronological order.

Chaney was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1947) and the American Philosophical Society (1943). He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Oregon (1944). In 1970 he received the Paleontological Society Medal .

He was married and had three children.

Web links

• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Ralph W. Chaney at the IPNI
• Biography at the Paleontological Museum Berkeley