Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was a British

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 and writer of numerous books on

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 ...

. He was known for his contributions to zoology, paleontology, and biogeography. He worked extensively in cataloging fossil vertebrates and describing new species, particularly from India, where he spent several years studying the region’s prehistoric fauna. Lydekker was a key figure in the field of vertebrate paleontology, authoring numerous scientific papers and books that helped classify extinct and extant species.

Biography

Richard Lydekker was born at

Tavistock Square Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden near Euston Station. History Tavistock Square was built shortly after 1806 by the property developer James Burton and the master builder Thomas Cubitt for Fr ...

in London. His father was Gerard Wolfe Lydekker, a barrister-at-law with Dutch ancestry. The family moved to Harpenden Lodge soon after Richard's birth. He was educated at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, where he took a first-class in the Natural Science

tripos TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...

(1872). In 1874 he joined the

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

and made studies of the

vertebrate palaeontology Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossilized remains, the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct vertebrates (animals with vertebrae and their descendants). It also tr ...

of northern India (especially

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

). He remained in this post until the death of his father in 1881. His main work in India was on the Siwalik palaeofauna; it was published in ''Palaeontologia Indica''. He was responsible for the cataloguing of the

fossil 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 preserve ...

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s, reptiles, and birds in the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

(10 vols., 1891). He named a variety of taxa including the

golden-bellied mangabey The golden-bellied mangabey (''Cercocebus chrysogaster'') is an Endangered Old World monkey found in swampy, humid forests south of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was formerly considered a subspecies In Taxon ...

; as a taxon authority he is named simply as "Lydekker".

Biogeography

He was influential in the science of

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...

. In 1896 he delineated the biogeographical boundary through

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, known as Lydekker's Line, that separates

Wallacea Wallacea is a biogeography, biogeographical designation for a group of mainly list of islands of Indonesia, Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australia (continent), Australian continental shelf, continental ...

on the west from

Australia-New Guinea The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts as Sahul (), Australia-New Guinea, Australinea, or Meganesia to distinguish it from the country of Australia, is located within the Southern and Eastern hemispheres, near t ...

on the east. It follows the edge of the

Sahul Shelf Geology, Geologically, the Sahul Shelf () is a part of the continental shelf of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, lying off the northwest coast of mainland Australia. Etymology The name "Sahull" or "Sahoel" appeared on 17th c ...

, an area from New Guinea to Australia of shallow water with the

Aru Islands Aru or ARU may refer to: Education * Alpha Rho Upsilon, a defunct fraternity in the United States * Anglia Ruskin University, a university in England * Ardhi University, a Tanzanian public university Places * Aru Islands Regency, a group of i ...

on its edge. Along with Wallace's Line and others, it indicates the definite effect of geology on the biogeography of the region, something not seen so clearly in other parts of the world.

First cuckoo

Lydekker attracted amused public attention with a pair of letters to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' in 1913, when he wrote on 6 February that he had heard a

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( ) family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are somet ...

, contrary to Yarrell's '' History of British Birds'' which doubted the bird arrived before April. Six days later on 12 February 1913, he wrote again, confessing that "the note was uttered by a bricklayer's labourer". Letters about the first cuckoo became a tradition in the newspaper.

Awards

He received the

Lyell Medal The Lyell Medal is a prestigious annual scientific medal given by the Geological Society of London, equal in status to the Murchison Medal. This medal is awarded based on one Earth Scientist's exceptional contribution of research to the scientific ...

from the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe, with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

in 1902.

Works

*
Catalogue of the Fossil Mammalia in the British Museum (Natural History)
', 5 vols. (1885–1887) *
Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History)
', 4 vols. (1889) * ''A Manual of Palaeontology'' (with

Henry Alleyne Nicholson Henry Alleyne Nicholson FRS FRSE FGS FLS (11 September 1844 – 19 January 1899) was a British palaeontologist and zoologist. Life The son of John Nicholson (1809–1886), a biblical scholar, and his wife Annie Elizabeth Waring, he was born at ...

, 2 vols., 1889)
''Catalogue of the Fossil Birds in the British Museum (Natural History)''
(1891) * ''Phases of Animal Life'' (1892) * ''The Royal Natural History'' (with W. H. Flower), 6 vols., 12 sec. (1893–1896) * ''A Hand-book to the Marsupialia and Monotremata'' (1894) * ''Life and Rock: A Collection of Zooogical and Geological Essays'' (1894) * ''A Geographical History of Mammals'' (1896) * ''A Hand-book to the British Mammalia'' (1896) * ''A Handbook to the Carnivora : part 1 : cats, civets, and mongooses'' (1896) * ''The Deer of all Lands : A history of the family Cervidae, living and extinct'' (1898) * ''Wild Oxen, Sheep & Goats of all Lands, Living and Extinct'' (1898) * ''The Wild Animals of India, Burma, Malaya, and Tibet'' (1900) * ''The great and small game of Europe, western & northern Asia and America'' (1901) * ''The New Natural History'' 6 vols. (1901) * ''Living Races of Mankind: A popular illustrated account of the customs, habits, pursuits, feasts, and ceremonies of the races of mankind throughout the world'', 2 vols. (1902), with Henry Neville Hutchinson and

John Walter Gregory John Walter Gregory, , (27 January 1864 – 2 June 1932) was a British geologist and explorer, known principally for his work on glacial geology and on the geography and geology of Australia and East Africa. The Gregory Rift in the Great Rif ...

* ''Mostly Mammals: Zoological Essays'' (1903) * ''Guide to the Gallery of Reptilia and Amphibia in the British museum'' (1906)
''Sir William Flower''
(1906) * ''The Game Animals of India, Burma, Malaya, and Tibet'' (rev. ed.) (1907) * ''Guide to the Great Game Animals (Ungulata) in British Museum'' (1907) * ''Guide to the Specimens of the Horse Family (Equidæ) in British Museum'' (1907) * ''The Game Animals of Africa'' (1908) * ''A Guide to the Domesticated Animals (other than horses)'' (1908) * ''Guide to the Whales, Porpoises, and Dolphins (order Cetacea)'' (1909) *
number of articles
in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1911 * ''Animal Portraiture'' (1912) * ''The Horse and its Relatives'' (1912) * ''The Sheep and its Cousins'' (1912) * ''Catalogue of the heads and horns of Indian big game bequeathed by A. O. Hume ... to the British Museum (Natural History)'' (1913) * ''Catalogue of the ungulate mammals in the British Museum (Natural History)'' 5 vols. (1913–1916) * ''Wild life of the World : a descriptive survey of the geographical distribution of animals'' 3 vols. (1916)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lydekker, Richard 1849 births 1915 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Biogeographers Employees of the Natural History Museum, London L English geologists English zoologists Fellows of the Royal Society Lyell Medal winners 19th-century English naturalists Zoologists with author abbreviations