Thomas Wright (geologist)

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Thomas Wright (born November 9, 1809 in Paisley , † November 17, 1884 in Cheltenham ) was a Scottish doctor and paleontologist.

Life

Wright studied anatomy and pathology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin . Due to a cut that he sustained while dissecting , he had to change specialties and began studying surgery at the College of Surgeons in London in 1832 . In 1846 he earned a Medical Doctor degree from St. Andrews University , and shortly afterwards moved to Cheltenham to work as a surgeon at Cheltenham General Hospital and the Cheltenham Dispensary .

In his spare time he devoted himself to geology and became a member of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club, founded in 1846 . In the course of time he compiled a collection of selected ammonites and echinoderms from the Jura . Between 1855 and 1882 he worked on the monographs of the Palaeontographical Society on the fossil echinoderms of the Jurassic and the Cretaceous of the British Isles. Wright published a number of papers on fossils that he had collected in the Cotswolds , including the multi-volume work Lias Ammonites of the British Isles , the last volume of which appeared posthumously in 1885 . In 1878 he was awarded the Wollaston Medal , and a year later he became a Fellow of the Royal Society . He was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since 1855 .

After his death, part of his fossil collection was sold to the British Museum , while other parts went to the Natural History Museum, BGS Keyworth and the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne .

literature

Web links

  • Roger F. Vaughan: Thomas Wright . The Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club: Biographical Notes on the Geologists (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wright, Thomas (1809-1884) . In: Dictionary of national biography, . vol. 63, 1900, pp. 133-144.
  2. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 26, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Wright, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish doctor and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Paisley
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1884
Place of death Cheltenham