Harry Dunlap MacGinitie (29 March 1896 – 31 January 1987) was an American

paleobotanist Paleobotany or palaeobotany, also known as paleophytology, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant fossils from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (pale ...

. The fossil plant genus ''

Macginitiea ''Macginitiea'' is an extinct genus in the family Platanaceae ranging from the Paleogene, Late Paleocene to Late Eocene of North America, known from the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument#Geology and paleontology, Clarno Formation of central ...

'' is named after him. MacGinitie was born in

Lynch, Nebraska Lynch is a village in Boyd County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 194 at the 2020 census, down from 245 in 2010. Lynch is located in northern Nebraska, between the Missouri and Niobrara rivers. History Lynch was incorporated as a ...

to Laura Ella McElhaney and John Maurice MacGinitie (originally as "McGuintie") I (1850-1933). He went to high school in Sturgis and then went to

Fresno State College California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers 60 ba ...

to receive an A.B. in 1926. His brother George Eber MacGinitie went on to study marine biology. He studied briefly at Stanford University and then taught at a high school before joining Humboldt State College, Arcata in 1928, working there until 1960. In between, he worked on his PhD at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

receiving his doctorate in 1935. He married Beatrice Hess on February 2, 1935. He taught the US Army Corps meteorology between 1943 and 1945. He worked as a research associate at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and after retirement he worked at the California Museum of Paleontology. He died at Napa. MacGinitie was a specialist on fossil plants and worked on the Eocene flora of the Central Sierra Nevada, Miocene flora of the Columbia plateau, Eocene Chalk Bluffs, and the Florissant Beds. He collaborated with

Estella Leopold Estella Bergere Leopold (January 8, 1927 – February 25, 2024) was an American paleobotanist and a conservationist. As a researcher in the United States Geological Survey, she aided in uncovering records of plant life from the Miocene around th ...

and helped in the establishment of the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.

References

External links

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado (with a picture of H.D. MacGinitie at work)

On the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
{{DEFAULTSORT:MacGinitie, Harry Dunlap 1896 births 1987 deaths Paleobotanists