Carl Leavitt Hubbs
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Carl Leavitt Hubbs (October 19, 1894 – June 30, 1979) was an American
ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...
.


Biography


Early life

Carl Leavitt Hubbs was born in
Williams, Arizona Williams () is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County, Arizona, United States, located west of Flagstaff, Arizona, Flagstaff. Its population was 3,023 at the 2010 census. It lies on the routes of U.S. Route 66 in Arizona#Historic Ro ...
, to Charles Leavitt and Elizabeth () Hubbs. His father had a wide variety of jobs (farmer, iron mine owner, newspaper owner). The family moved several times before settling in
San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
where he got his first taste of
natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
. After his parents divorced in 1907, he lived with his mother, who opened a private school in
Redondo Beach, California Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent Beach Cities, beach c ...
. His maternal grandmother Jane Goble Goss, one of the first female doctors, showed Hubbs how to harvest shellfish and other sea creatures. One of his teachers, impressed by Hubbs's abilities in science, recommended that he study chemistry at the University of Berkeley. The family moved once more to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. In Los Angeles, George Bliss Culver, one of the many volunteers of
David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...
, encouraged Hubbs to abandon his study of birds and instead to study fish, particularly those fish that inhabited the rivers of Los Angeles, which at that time had not been well researched. Hubbs completed his studies at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, following particularly the ichthyologist Charles Henry Gilbert, a disciple of Jordan. Gilbert became Hubbs's mentor and gave him the responsibility of caring for a collection of fish from Stanford. During this same period, Hubbs met
John Otterbein Snyder John Otterbein Snyder (August 14, 1867 – August 19, 1943) was an American ichthyologist and professor of zoology at Stanford University. History As a student he met David Starr Jordan who inspired him to enter zoology. He eventually became a zoo ...
, another disciple of Jordan. Hubbs obtained his BA in 1916 and his master's degree in 1917.


Curator

From 1917 until 1920 Hubbs served as the assistant curator of fish, amphibians, and reptiles at the Field Museum of Natural History in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. In 1920, he took the position of curator of fish at the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan, a position he held for 24 years. In 1927, while working at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, he received his Ph.D., writing his dissertation on ''The Consequences of Structural Modifications of the Developmental Rate in Fishes Considered in Reference to Certain Problems of Evolution''. Hubbs himself along with members of team and students contributed to the enrichment of the museum's collection. In 1929, he participated in an academic trip to
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
where he collected five tons of specimens. Hubbs began to study hybridization among different species of fish.


California

In addition to his position as conservator, Hubbs was the first director of the Institute for Fisheries Research in the Department of Conservation of Michigan (1930–1935). In this role, he conducted research on the diverse inventory of regional fauna, mortality, water pollution, growth and predation. During his stay at the University of Michigan, Hubbs issued more than 300 publications, almost entirely devoted to fish. His studies were not confined to the United States because he also studied a large collection of fish from Japan. From 1944 to 1969, Hubbs taught biology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego in La Jolla, where he replaced Francis Bertody Sumner. From 1969 to 1979 he served as professor emeritus. He accepted the post for the new research opportunities it opened. Still, the position offered a lower salary and the rules prevented him from hiring his wife. The restrictions of World War II forced the Scripps Institution to rent his research boat to the army, significantly restricting his research opportunities. During the summer of 1946,
Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Oliv ...
, son of a marine biologist, offered Hubbs to accompany him during a cruise aboard his yacht, the ''Zaca''. The results weren't great but Hubbs discovered high levels of endemism of species of Guadeloupe. In the years following the war, Hubbs began doing research in the field of commercial and recreational fishing. He observed changes in population patterns depending on the fluctuation in temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. He began studies of ancient climates through such tools as dating mollusk shells. His research led to the founding of a laboratory in 1957 to provide dating for archaeological and geological samples. He bequeathed his collection to San Diego's Archaeological Museum of Man in 1973.


Scientific research

Hubbs issued 712 publications. At first, he studied the fish of the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
but after moving to La Jolla, he expanded his research to include marine mammals. He also served as an active adviser, both through articles for popular magazines, the
Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
, and radio broadcasts. He educated the public from 1920 to 1930 the need to protect the habitats of marine mammals. For his environmental protection work he received a gold medal of the San Diego Natural History Society. Hubbs was a member of several 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 ...
, participating in the
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) is an international learned society devoted to the scientific studies of ichthyology (study of fish) and herpetology (study of reptiles and amphibians). The primary emphases of th ...
, the Wildlife Society of San Diego Natural History Society, and the National Academy of Sciences of the
Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...
. He received numerous awards from the Academy of Natural Sciences and the
California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...
. He was awarded the 1964 Leidy Award from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.


Personal life

Hubbs was married to mathematician Laura Cornelia Clark Hubbs, sister of ichthyologist Frances Naomi Clark. They met on a field trip of the Stanford Natural History Club. They married on June 15, 1918. His wife, who had also studied at Stanford, having received her BA in 1915 and her master's degree in 1916, taught math. The couple worked there and had three children who survived to adulthood:
Frances Frances is an English given name or last name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'the French.' The male version of the name in English is Francis (given name), Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "F ...
, born in 1919; Clark, born in 1921; and Earl, born in 1922. Frances, who married the ichthyologist Robert Rush Miller, and Clark both became ichthyologists, while Earl became a high school biology teacher.


Death

Hubbs died June 30, 1979, in
La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...
.


Legacy

The Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute is named after Hubbs. Hubbs's name was given to a dried-up lake in Nevada, and to a number of organisms:Cf. Norris (1974) : 581.


Taxa named in his honor

* five
genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...
and twenty-two
species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of fish, including **'' Allodontichthys hubbsi'', **'' Astyanax hubbsi'' (Mexican cave fish), **'' Colpichthys hubbsi'', **'' Coregonus hubbsi'' (Ives Lake cisco), **'' Cottus hubbsi'', **'' Epatretus carlhubbsi'' (giant hagfish), **'' Gambusia hubbsi'', **'' Gobiomorphus hubbsi'' (bluegill bully), **'' Gymnothorax hubbsi'', **'' Lampanyctus hubbsi'', **'' Lampetra hubbsi'' (Kern brook
lamprey Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are a group of Agnatha, jawless fish comprising the order (biology), order Petromyzontiformes , sole order in the Class (biology), class Petromyzontida. The adult lamprey is characterize ...
), **'' Leucichthys hubbsi'', **'' Malacoctenus hubbsi'' (Redside blenny), **'' Merluccius-hubbsi'' (Argentine hake), **'' Moxostoma hubbsi'' (copper redhorse), **'' Novumbra hubbsi'' (olympic mudminnow), **'' Oryzias hubbsi'', **The Southern scythemarked butterflyfish '' Prognathodes carlhubbsi'' Nalbant, 1995 **'' Pteronotropis hubbsi'' (bluehead shiner), **'' Rosenblattichthys hubbsi'' (Hubbs' pearleye), **'' Strongylura hubbsi'' * a genus and a species of
lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...
* a species of bird * two species of
mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000  extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...
, including '' Abyssotrophon hubbsi'' * a species of
crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...
* three species of cave
arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...
* two species of
insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...
* three species of
algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...
* Hubbs' beaked whale, ''Mesoplodon carlhubbsi''


Notes


Taxon described by him

*See :Taxa named by Carl Leavitt Hubbs


References

* * *


External links


Studies in Ichthyology, David Starr Jordan, Carl Leavitt Hubbs, Published by Stanford University, Palo Alto, Ca., 1919

National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

Virginia social archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbs, Carl Leavitt American ichthyologists Archaeologists of the Baja California peninsula 1894 births 1979 deaths People from Williams, Arizona Leavitt family Stanford University alumni Scripps Institution of Oceanography faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Michigan alumni Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People from Redondo Beach, California Writers from Arizona 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American philanthropists Writers from Los Angeles County, California Scientists from Arizona Scientists from California