Herbert Fox Standing (5 July 1857 – 24 December 1943) was an English

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 ...

and Quaker medical

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

in Madagascar. He was the author of the book ''The Children of Madagascar'' (1887) and the Headmaster of the Boys' High School of the Friends' Foreign Mission Association in

Antananarivo Antananarivo (Malagasy language, Malagasy: ; French language, French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known ...

. Standing is responsible for describing four species of

subfossil lemur Subfossil lemurs are lemurs from Madagascar that are represented by recent (subfossil) remains dating from nearly 26,000 years ago to approximately 560 years ago (from the late Pleistocene until the Holocene). They include both extant a ...

, including '' Archaeoindris fontoynontii'' (1909), '' Mesopropithecus pithecoides'' (1905), '' Palaeopropithecus maximus'' (1903), '' Megaladapis grandidieri'' (1903), and other

subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

that have since become

taxonomic synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The Botanical nomenclature, botanical and Zoological nomenclature, zoological codes of nomencl ...

s. Standing's day gecko (''Phelsuma standingi)'' is named after him. Standing married Lucy Glynn in 1881. They had seven children.

References

Literature cited

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Standing, Herbert F. 1857 births 1943 deaths People from Crawley British missionary educators Protestant missionaries in Madagascar Quaker missionaries British palaeontologists Christian medical missionaries