Austin Hobart Clark (December 17, 1880 in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of M ...

– October 28, 1954 in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

) was an American

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

who studied

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

ornithology 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 ...

and

entomology Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

Personal life

The son of Theodore Minot Clark and Jeannette French Clark, Clark obtained his Bachelor of Arts at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1903. He had five children with his first wife Mary Wendell Upham, whom he married on March 6, 1906. Mary died in December 1931 and he married Leila Gay Forbes in 1933.

Career

In 1901, Clark organized a scientific expedition to

Isla Margarita Margarita Island (, ) is the largest island in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the north west coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on the island. History ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. From 1903 to 1905, he conducted research in the

Antilles The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater An ...

. From 1906 to 1907, he led a scientific team aboard the 1882 USS ''Albatross''. In 1908, he took a post at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

, which he held until his retirement in 1950. Clark had important and various roles in a number of

learned societies A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

: he was president of the

Entomological Society of Washington The Entomological Society of Washington was organized on February 29, 1884 at a meeting called by three entomologists employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Charles Valentine Riley, Eugene Amandus Schwarz, and Leland Ossian Howard, in Ri ...

, vice president of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

, and directed the press service of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

. Clark wrote more than 600 publications written in English, French, Italian, German, and Russian. Some of the most well-known include ''Animals of Land and Sea'' (1925), ''Nature Narratives'' (two volumes, 1929 and 1931), ''The New Evolution'' (1930), and ''Animals Alive'' (1948). Several animal species and genera were first scientifically described by Clark, including the

Lesser Antillean macaw The Lesser Antillean macaw or Guadeloupe macaw (''Ara guadeloupensis'') is a hypothetical extinct species of macaw that is thought to have been endemic to the Lesser Antillean island region of Guadeloupe. In spite of the absence of conserved sp ...

(1905), the Martinique parrot (1905), the

Dominican green-and-yellow macaw The Dominican green-and-yellow macaw (''Ara atwoodi''), Atwood's macaw or Dominican macaw, is an extinct species of macaw that may have lived on the island of Dominica. It is known only through the writings of British colonial judge Thomas Atwoo ...

(1908), the

mulga parrot The mulga parrot (''Psephotellus varius'') is endemic to arid scrublands and lightly timbered grasslands in the interior of southern Australia. The male mulga parrot is multicolored, from which the older common name of many-coloured parrot is der ...

(1910), the

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

genus ''

Laomenes ''Laomenes'' is a genus of shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods bel ...

'' (1919) or the

starfish Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...

species '' Copidaster lymani'' (1948). Diagram from Zoogenesis

Zoogenesis

Clark is best known for his evolutionary theory called zoogenesis, which he introduced in his book ''The New Evolution: Zoogenesis'' (1930).J. H. W. (1931). ''Reviewed Work: The New Evolution Zoogenesis by Austin H. Clark''. ''Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933)'' 26 (101): 160. His theory challenged the single tree view of

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

, according to Clark the major types of life forms on Earth evolved separately and independently from all the others.Numbers, Ronald L. (2006). '' The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design''. Harvard University Press. p. 53. . Clark wrote that "the seemingly simultaneous appearance of all the phyla or major groups of animals simply means that life at its very first beginnings developed at once and simultaneously from the primitive single cell in every possible direction, giving rise to some original form or forms in every phylum." He termed this process, ''eogenesis''. Clark was quote-mined by creationists but he rejected any supernatural view of origins.

Selected publications

''Animals of Land and Sea''
(1925)
''Nature Narratives''
(1929-1931)
''The New Evolution: Zoogenesis''
(1930)
''Zoogenesis: The New Theory of Evolution''
(''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'', 1930)
''Eogenesis: The Origin of Animal Forms''
(1937)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Austin Hobart 1880 births 1954 deaths American entomologists 20th-century American zoologists Harvard University alumni Non-Darwinian evolution People from Wellesley, Massachusetts