Percy Sladen
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Walter Percy Sladen (30 June 1849 – 11 June 1900) was an English biologist who specialised in
starfish Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...
. The son of a wealthy leather merchant, Sladen was born near Halifax,
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
on 30 June 1849. He was educated at
Hipperholme Grammar School Hipperholme Grammar School is a private grammar school in Hipperholme (near Halifax), West Yorkshire, England. It educates pupils between the ages of 3 and 16. Lightcliffe Preparatory School merged with Hipperholme Grammar School in 2003, un ...
and
Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...
, but received no university training. As a young man he indulged in his hobby of
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 ...
, but soon became fascinated with
echinoderms An echinoderm () is any animal of the phylum Echinodermata (), which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, as well as the sessile sea lilies or "stone lilies". While bilaterally symmetrical as larv ...
. In 1876 he was elected a Fellow of the
Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...
, and the following year became a Fellow of the
Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity and organization devoted to the worldwide animal conservation, conservation of animals and their habitat conservation, habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zo ...
. 1877 also saw the publication of his first paper, in which he split the
sea-lily Crinoids are marine invertebrates that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that remain attached to the sea floor by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms, called feather stars or comatulids, are ...
genus ''Poteriocrinus'' into four; in his lifetime, Sladen would gain a reputation as a "splitter" because of his proclivity for declaring specimens to belong to new genera or species. Late that year he began a long and fruitful collaboration with
Duncan Duncan may refer to: People * Duncan (given name), various people * Duncan (surname), various people * Clan Duncan * Justice Duncan (disambiguation) Places * Duncan Creek (disambiguation) * Duncan River (disambiguation) * Duncan Lake (di ...
; which would see the publication of some 15 co-authored papers, many on
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 ...
s, over twelve years. From December 1878, Sladen spent three months at
Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
under the auspices of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a Charitable organization, charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Scienc ...
. His work there, on echinoderm
pedicellaria A pedicellaria (: pedicellariae) is a small wrench- or claw-shaped appendage with movable jaws, called valves, commonly found on echinoderms (phylum Echinodermata), particularly in sea stars (class Asteroidea) and sea urchins (class Echinoidea). ...
e, established his reputation as a leading authority on echinoderms, and in 1881 he was invited to o and write up an account of the starfishes collected during the ''Challenger'' expedition. This would take him a decade to complete, and comprise nearly 1000 pages and 118 plates. By 1890, Sladen married Constance Anderson of York. She was the sister of Tempest Anderson the volcanologist, and Yarborough Anderson, a barrister. Her father William Charles Anderson was a surgeon and Sheriff of York. By that time Sladen was on the Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Zoological Secretary of the Linnean Society of London, and also active in the Zoological Society of London and 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 ...
. He therefore relocated to London, at least temporarily. Unfortunately, much of Sladen's later life was interrupted by poor health. In 1895 he was elected vice-president of the Linnean Society, but only a few months later he gave up both this and his secretarial position because of health problems. He completed only two more papers before retiring in 1898 to Northbrook, an
Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
estate inherited on the death of his uncle, John Dawson. He died there two years later, on 11 June 1900. Following his death, Sladen's wife helped preserve her husband's memory by donating his large collection of echinoderms to the
Royal Albert Memorial Museum Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) is a museum and art gallery in Exeter, Devon, the largest in the city. It holds significant and diverse collections in areas such as zoology, anthropology, fine art, local and foreign archaeolog ...
in Exeter, and endowing the Percy Sladen Memorial Trust, to be administered by the Linnean Society to support scientific research.


Honoria

The hatchetfish '' Argyropelecus sladeni'' was named after him.


See also

* :Taxa named by Percy Sladen


Notes


References

*
alternative
retrieved 2016-12-15)


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sladen, Percy 1849 births 1900 deaths English zoologists Fellows of the Geological Society of London Fellows of the Zoological Society of London Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People educated at Marlborough College