Francis Bertody Sumner (August 1, 1874 – September 6, 1945) 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 ...

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 ...

and writer. Sumner was born in

Pomfret, Connecticut Pomfret is a town in Windham County, Connecticut with a population of 4,266 according to the 2020 United States Census. The town is part of the Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region. It was incorporated in 1713 and was named after Pontefract ...

. He studied at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

where in 1901 he received a PhD with a thesis on fish

embryology Embryology (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the Prenatal development (biology), prenatal development of gametes (sex ...

.Child, Charles Manning. (1948)
''Biographical Memoir of Francis Bertody Sumner''
In ''Biographical Memoirs''. National Academy of Sciences 25: 147-173. He became the Director of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries Laboratory at Woods Hole. He worked as a professor of biology at the

Scripps Institution of Oceanography Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is the center for oceanography and Earth science at the University of California, San Diego. Its main campus is located in La Jolla, with additional facilities in Point Loma. Founded in 1903 and incorpo ...

. Sumner was elected to the United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 1937 and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1938. Sumner collected many subspecies of ''

Peromyscus ''Peromyscus'' is a genus of rodents. They are commonly referred to as deer mice or deermice, not to be confused with the chevrotain or "mouse deer". They are New World mice only distantly related to the common house and laboratory mouse, ''M ...

'' in California. He also studied the pigments of fishes.

Publications

*''A Biological Survey of the Waters of Woods Hole and Vicinity'' (1913) *''Heredity, Environment, and Responsibility'' (1921) *''Genetic, Distributional, and Evolutionary Studies of the Subspecies of Deer Mice (Peromyscus)'' (1932) *''The Life History of an American Naturalist'' (1945)

References

1874 births 1945 deaths American ichthyologists American zoologists Columbia University alumni People from Pomfret, Connecticut Lamarckism {{US-zoologist-stub Members of the American Philosophical Society