Melbourne Armstrong Carriker, Jr. (February 14, 1879 – July 27, 1965) was an American
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
and
entomologist.[Melbourne Armstrong Carriker](_blank)
at the SIA archives.
Biography
Life
Carriker was born in
Sullivan, Illinois
Sullivan is a city in Moultrie County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,413 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat and largest city of Moultrie County. Sullivan is named after Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, where ...
in 1879. He attended the
University of Nebraska
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
, where he studied ''
Mallophaga
The Mallophaga are a possibly paraphyletic section of lice
Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been re ...
'' (bird lice) under
Lawrence Bruner
Lawrence Bruner (March 2, 1856 in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania – January 30, 1937 in Berkeley, California) was a United States entomologist.
Biography
Bruner's parents emigrated to West Point, Nebraska when Bruner was a child. While growing up, ...
. He had a son,
Melbourne Romaine Carriker
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung–Taungurung language, Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the St ...
, who was a marine
malacologist
Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...
.
He Moved with his family in
Beachwood, New Jersey
Beachwood is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 10,859, a decrease of 186 (-1.7%) from the 2010 United States ...
after returning to the United States in 1927.
[Wiedenfeld, David A.; and Carriker, Melbourne R]
"In Memoriam: Melbourne Armstrong Carriker Jr., 1879-1965"
''The Auk
''Ornithology'', formerly ''The Auk'' and ''The Auk: Ornithological Advances'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official publication of the American Ornithological Society (AOS). It was established in 1884 and is published quarterly. ...
'', January 2007. Accessed August 24, 2021. "So Vista Nieve was sold, and the Carriker family moved to Beachwood, New Jersey. Times were hard for the family for the next year and a half. While waiting for the position to open at the academy, Carriker—a skilled carpenter—worked in that trade as a contractor, and was active in local politics."
He died in 1965.
Career
Carriker began collecting the skins of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s and studying avian habits when he graduated from high school. He held an interest in bird lice, and became a world authority on genera from the
neotropics
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In bi ...
. He communicated with global ''Mallophaga''
systematist
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tr ...
s and published numerous papers in both
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
. He also described two
families
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
, four
subfamilies
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...
, 53
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...
and
subgenera
In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.
In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed betwee ...
, and approximately 866
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
and
subspecies of bird lice throughout his career. He traveled extensively throughout
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...
and collected specimens for the
Carnegie Museum, the
American Museum of Natural History in
Manhattan, New York
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. stat ...
, the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natu ...
(then the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia), the
United States National Museum
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
, the
Peabody Museum, the
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, and the
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...
.
Carriker worked as an assistant curator of birds at Carnegie Museum from 1907 to 1909. He became an honorary collaborator in the Department of Entomology, at the United States National Museum, in 1953.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carriker, Melbourne Armstrong
1879 births
1965 deaths
American ornithologists
American entomologists
People associated with the American Museum of Natural History
People from Beachwood, New Jersey
Zoological collectors