Shane Alwyne Parker (3 August 1943 – 21 November 1992) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

-born

museum curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

, who emigrated to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 1967 after participating in the second Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expedition in 1964. He worked as a curator at the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultur ...

1976–1992. He died of

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). The name typically refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlarged lymph node ...

at his home in Adelaide after a two-year illness. Parker described Cox's sandpiper as a species new to science in 1982; this

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

was later revealed to be a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

. He also named the extinct

Kangaroo Island emu The Kangaroo Island emu or dwarf emu (''Dromaius novaehollandiae baudinianus'') is an extinct subspecies of emu. It was restricted to Kangaroo Island, South Australia, which was known as ''Ile Decrés'' by the members of the Baudin expedition. I ...

(''Dromaius baudinianus'') in 1984 on the basis of

subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

bones. He was the senior author of the first two parts (all that were published) of the ''Annotated Checklist of the Birds of South Australia'', ''Part 1: Emus to Spoonbills'' (1979), and ''Part 2A: Waterfowl'' (1985).

References

* Joseph, Leo. (1993). Obituary. Shane A. Parker 1943–1992. ''Emu'' 93: 297–298. * Robin, Libby. (2001). ''The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001''. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. 1943 births 1992 deaths Australian ornithologists Australian curators 20th-century Australian zoologists {{Australia-ornithologist-stub