Elkanah Billings (May 5, 1820 – June 14, 1876) is often referred to as Canada's first

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

. Billings was born on a farm by the

Rideau River The Rideau River (french: Rivière Rideau) is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is . As explained in a writi ...

outside

Bytown Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a sod ...

(

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

), now known as Billings Estate. His parents were named Lamira Dow and Braddish Billings. His family included an older sister named Sabra and an older brother Maj Braddish Billings Jr, who practised as an architect and served in the

North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a resistance by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of ...

. His younger siblings were Samuel, Sarah (known as Sally) and Charles. He was originally educated in law and in 1845, he was called to the Canadian bar. In 1856, he founded the journal the ''Canadian Naturalist (and Geologist)''. He continued to practise law until 1857, when he was hired to be the first paleontologist for

Geological Survey of Canada The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC; french: Commission géologique du Canada (CGC)) is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country, developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the en ...

(GSC). In his lifetime, he identified 1065 new

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

and 61 new

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomencl ...

, including ''

Aspidella :Aspidella'' is also a homonym for the mushroom genus '' Saproamanita. ''Aspidella'' is an Ediacaran disk-shaped fossil of uncertain affinity. It is known from the single species ''A. terranovica''. Morphology ''Aspidella'' consists of disk- ...

'', the first documented fossil of the

Ediacaran biota The Ediacaran (; formerly Vendian) biota is a taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period (). These were composed of enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile ...

. He married Helen Walker Wilson in 1845. However, he was childless.

Bibliography

* Billings E. 1865
''Palaeozoic Fossils. Volume I. Containing descriptions and figures of new or little known species of organic remains from the Silurian rocks, 1861-1865
'. Dawson Brothers, Montreal.

, Separate Report, 426 pp. ;Bibliography * *

References

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

External links

*
Elkanah Billings: Lawyer/Journalist/Paleontologist
Web article developed by the Law Society of Upper Canada Archives 1820 births 1876 deaths Canadian paleontologists Geological Survey of Canada personnel Paleontology in Ontario {{Canada-scientist-stub

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links