Thomas Rupert Jones FRS (1 October 181913 April 1911) was a British

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

Biography

Jones was born on 1 October 1819 in

Cheapside Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, England, which forms part of the A40 road, A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St Martin's Le Grand with Poultry, London, Poultry. Near its eas ...

, London, the son of John Jones, silk merchant, and his wife Rhoda (née Burberry) Jones of Coventry. While at a private school at Ilminster, his attention was attracted to geology by the

fossil 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 preserve ...

s that are so abundant in the Lias quarries. In 1835 he was apprenticed to a surgeon at

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

, and he completed his apprenticeship in 1842 at Newbury in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

. He was then engaged in practice mainly in London, until in 1849 he was appointed assistant secretary to the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe, with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. In 1862 he was made professor of geology at the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC) was a United Kingdom, British military academy for training infantry and cavalry Officer (armed forces), officers of the British Army, British and British Indian Army, Indian Armies. It was founded in 1801 at Gre ...

. Having devoted his especial attention to

microfossil A microfossil is a fossil that is generally between 0.001 mm and 1 mm in size, the visual study of which requires the use of light or electron microscopy. A fossil which can be studied with the naked eye or low-powered magnification, ...

s, he now became the highest authority in Britain on the

Foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...

and those

Entomostraca Entomostraca is a historical subclass of crustaceans, no longer in technical use. It was originally considered one of the two major lineages of crustaceans (the other being the class Malacostraca), combining all other classes—Branchiopoda, Cep ...

that were regarded

Ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a Class (biology), class of the crustacean, Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 33,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant taxon, extant) have been identified,Brandão, S.N.; Antoni ...

a later on. He edited the 2nd edition of Mantell's ''Medals of Creation'' (1854), the 3rd edition of Mantell's ''Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight'' (1854), and the 7th edition of Mantell's ''Wonders of Geology'' (1857); he also edited the 2nd edition of F. Dixon's ''Geology of Sussex'' (1878). Jones was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in June 1872 and was awarded the

Lyell Medal The Lyell Medal is a prestigious annual scientific medal given by the Geological Society of London, equal in status to the Murchison Medal. This medal is awarded based on one Earth Scientist's exceptional contribution of research to the scientific ...

by the Geological Society in 1890. For many years he was specially interested in the geology of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. He died and was buried at

Chesham Bois Chesham Bois (traditionally , but now more commonly ) is a village in the Chiltern Hills, in Buckinghamshire, England, adjacent to both Amersham and Chesham. History Initially a hamlet in the parish of Chesham, the manor was assessed at 1½ ...

, Buckinghamshire. He had married twice: firstly to Mary, daughter of William Harris of Charing, Kent, and secondly to Charlotte Ashburnham, daughter of Archibald Archer.

Bibliography

His publications included: * ''A Monograph of the Entomostraca of the Cretaceous Formation of England''
''A Monograph of the Tertiary Entomostraca of England''

* ''A Monograph of the Foraminifera of the Crag'' (with H. B. Brady); and numerous articles in the ''

Annals and Magazine of Natural History The ''Journal of Natural History'' is a scientific journal published by Taylor & Francis focusing on entomology and zoology. The journal was established in 1841 under the name ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.'') ...

'', the ''

Geological Magazine The ''Geological Magazine'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1864, covering the earth sciences. It publishes original scientific research papers on geological topics. The journal is published bimonthly by Cambridge University ...

'', the ''Proceedings of the Geologists' Association'', and other journals.

References

External links

* 1819 births 1911 deaths People from the City of London 19th-century British geologists English palaeontologists Lyell Medal winners Fellows of the Royal Society Scientists from London Presidents of the Geologists' Association {{England-scientist-stub