Henry Riley (1797–1848) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

naturalist 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 ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

. He is notable for being the co-discoverer and co-describer of the

archosaur Archosauria () or archosaurs () is a clade of diapsid sauropsid tetrapods, with birds and crocodilians being the only extant taxon, extant representatives. Although broadly classified as reptiles, which traditionally exclude birds, the cladistics ...

Palaeosaurus ''Palaeosaurus'' (or ''Paleosaurus'') is a genus of indeterminate archosaur known from two teeth found in the Bromsgrove Sandstone Formation and also either the Magnesian Conglomerate or the Avon Fissure Fill of Clifton, Bristol, England (or ...

'' and the

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

Thecodontosaurus ''Thecodontosaurus'' ("socket-tooth lizard") is a genus of herbivorous basal sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the late Triassic period (Carnian? age). Its remains are known mostly from Triassic "fissure fillings" in South England. ''T ...

''.

Early life

Henry Riley was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

in 1797.The Geological Curator, 10 (8). pp. 493-498. He trained to become a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and he graduated during the mid-1820s. He was one of the men who founded the Bristol Institution in the 1820s. Riley was involved in a body snatching scandal in the late 1820s - he was fined £6 ( inflated to £657.29 in 2019) in 1828. He was later revoked of this claim during the 1830s. Riley married the daughter of fellow lecturer Henry Daniel, who lectured from 1810 until 1836.

Career

His Geoffroyan lectures of 1831-33 were the first to be heard in

. He was a

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

at St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol in 1832 and the

Bristol Royal Infirmary The Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) is a large teaching hospital in the centre of Bristol, England. It has links with the nearby University of Bristol and the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of the West of England, also in Brist ...

between 1834 and 1847. He taught at

Bristol Medical School Bristol Medical School is a medical school located in Bristol, South West England. Originally an independent medical institution from 1833 to 1893, it later merged with University College, Bristol- the predecessor of the University of Bristol. To ...

until he retired in 1846 due to his deteriorating health.

Palaeontological discoveries

In 1833, Riley described the extinct

ray Ray or RAY may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), the bony or horny spine on ray-finned fish Science and mathematics * Half-line (geometry) or ray, half of a line split at an ...

-like

chimaeriform Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes (), known informally as ghost sharks, rat fish (not to be confused with rattails), spookfish, or rabbit fish; the last two names are also applied to Opisthoproctidae and Siganidae, re ...

Squaloraja ''Squaloraja'' (Latin for "shark- skate") is an extinct genus of ray-like marine chimaeriform fish from the Early Jurassic of Europe. Taxonomy It contains a single named species known from the Sinemurian-aged Blue Lias of Lyme Regis, Englan ...

'' based on a specimen found by

Mary Anning Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector, fossil trade, dealer, and palaeontologist. She became known internationally for her discoveries in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Cha ...

four years earlier. Inthe autumn of 1834, Riley and the

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the Bristol Institution,

Samuel Stutchbury Samuel Stutchbury (15 January 1798 – 12 February 1859) was an English people, English natural history, naturalist and geology, geologist. Alongside Henry Riley (scientist), Henry Riley, Stutchbury was the co-discoverer of ''Thecodontosaurus'', ...

, began to excavate "saurian remains" at the quarry of

Durdham Down Durdham Down is an area of public open space in Bristol, England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and ...

, at Clifton, presently a part of

, which is part of the

Magnesian Conglomerate The Magnesian Conglomerate is a geological Formation (geology), formation in Clifton, Bristol in England (originally Avon (county), Avon), Gloucestershire and southern Wales, present in Tytherington, Gloucestershire, Tytherington, Durdham Down, S ...

. In 1834 and 1835, they briefly reported on the finds, and they provided their initial description in 1836, naming the new genera ''

'' and ''

''.

Death

Two years after retiring, Riley died in 1848 in

, aged 50 or 51.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Henry 19th-century British surgeons English surgeons English palaeontologists English naturalists 19th-century English scientists 1797 births 1848 deaths Scientists from Bristol 19th-century British naturalists 19th-century English medical doctors