Alex Ritchie (1935-2023) was a palaeontologist at the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...

in Sydney and the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in Canberra. He was a member of the Antarctic Expedition that discovered important sites of fossil fish in Antarctica, including Mount Ritchie, which is named after him.

Biography

Alex Ritchie was born in Scotland in 1935. His family was poor and he would scavenge for coal. One day he came across a fossil, which became a lifelong passion. He emigrated to Australia in 1968, and took up a position at the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. In 1970-1971, Ritchie was a member of the

Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition The Antarctic Research Centre (ARC) is part of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. Its mission is to research " Antarctic climate history and processes, and their influence on the global cl ...

. The Skelton Neve area was known to have fossils, but earlier finds were fragmentary. The University sent a group of specialist to collect as many well-preserved fossils as they could find. In particular, Ritchie searched for the fossilised jaw of a

sarcopterygian Sarcopterygii (; )—sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii ()—is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bony fish commonly referred to as lobe-finned fish. These vertebrates ar ...

, an air breathing lobe-finned fish that gave rise to first

tetrapod A tetrapod (; from Ancient Greek :wiktionary:τετρα-#Ancient Greek, τετρα- ''(tetra-)'' 'four' and :wiktionary:πούς#Ancient Greek, πούς ''(poús)'' 'foot') is any four-Limb (anatomy), limbed vertebrate animal of the clade Tetr ...

s. He not only found a jaw bone, which he extracted with a

jackhammer A jackhammer (pneumatic drill or demolition hammer in British English) is a pneumatic or electro-mechanical tool that combines a hammer directly with a chisel. It was invented by William McReavy, who then sold the patent to Charles Brady Ki ...

, but a plethora of

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

fossils of fish that shed new light on

continental drift Continental drift is a highly supported scientific theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The theory of continental drift has since been validated and inc ...

. Among his discoveries were the fossilised bony plates of a strange armoured fish that Ritchie initially thought was an original discovery, but which he subsequently identified as ''

Groenlandaspis ''Groenlandaspis'' is an extinct genus of arthrodire from the Late Devonian. Fossils of the different species are found in late Devonian strata in all continents except eastern Asia. The generic name commemorates the fact that the first specimens ...

'' a Devonian freshwater

placoderm Placoderms (from Ancient Greek πλάξ 'plax'', ''plakos'''Plate (animal anatomy), plate' and δέρμα 'derma'''skin') are vertebrate animals of the class (biology), class Placodermi, an extinct group of prehistoric fish known from Pal ...

that had been found in Greenland in 1929-1931. The site where many of the expedition's discoveries were made was named Mount Ritchie in his honour in 2000. Ritchie kept 16 mm film footage of the expedition which lay on a shelf at his home in Canberra for many years, but it was unwatched because he did not have the equipment to view it. In 2018 he took it to the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

in Canberra, which had the equipment, and showed it in its 250-seat Arc Cinema. In 1993, Ritchie led an expedition to

Canowindra Situated on the Belubula River, Canowindra (pronounced ) is a historic township and the largest population centre in Cabonne Shire, New South Wales, Cabonne Shire. The town is located between Orange, New South Wales, Orange and Cowra, New South ...

, New South Wales, where roadwork in 1955 had uncovered a large rock slab covered with unusual impressions. The expedition removed 70 tonnes of rock to uncover over 3,000 Devonian fish fossils, some of which had never been seen before. Specimens included fish with lungs and with five-fingered limbs. Ritchie helped establish the Canowindra Age of Fishes Museum, one of only two fish fossil museums in the world, which he visited with

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

. During the 1980s, Ritchie clashed with

creationist Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation, and is often pseudoscientific. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary' ...

, religious fanatics who believed the world was created in seven days, who wanted to get have their beliefs taught in schools. Ritchie was one of many scientists who debunked their beliefs. Ritchie moved to Canberra in 2007 to be closer to his daughter Shona and grandchildren. He became an emeritus at the

there. He died in November 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Alex 1935 births 2023 deaths Scottish emigrants to Australia Australian paleontologists