Sydney Savory Buckman (3 April 1860, in Cirencester – 26 February 1929) was a British

palaeontologist 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

stratigrapher Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostrati ...

. He is known for his studies of extinct marine invertebrates, especially the

Brachiopoda Brachiopods (), phylum (biology), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear e ...

and

Ammonoidea Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

of the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

era ( Ma (million years ago)).

Biography

Buckman was the eldest son of James Buckman (1814-1884), Professor of Geology, Botany, and Zoology at the

Royal Agricultural College The Royal Agricultural University (RAU), formerly the Royal Agricultural College, is a public university in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Established in 1845, it was the first agricultural college in the English-speaking world. ...

1848-1863, and his wife Julia (1834–1865). His first scientific paper (which related to Brachiopoda) was published in 1883, in the ''Proceedings of the Dorsetshire Natural History Field Club''. He was a prolific author. He showed that ammonites could be used as

index fossil Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. "Biostratigraphy." ''Oxford Reference: Dictionary of Biology ...

s to subdivide the Jurassic strata. His major work, ''A Monograph of the Ammonites of the "Inferior Oolite Series"'' (never really completed), was published in several volumes by the Palaeontographical Society 1887-1907. He described numerous

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

and

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of marine

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 ...

. During his lifetime, he gained a reputation as a " splitter". His obituary in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' says that through his studies he "was led to create a multitude of genera and species far beyond what had hitherto been deemed necessary". In 1897 he was awarded the

Murchison Fund The Murchison Fund is an award given by the Geological Society of London to researchers under the age of 40 who have contributed substantially to the study of hard rock and tectonic geology. It is named in honour of Prof. Roderick Impey Murchison ...

by the

Geological Society 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 ...

. From 1897 to at least 1899, Sydney and his wife Maude were active in the early modern

feminist movement The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and wom ...

, promoting practical clothing for women through organisations such as the Western Rational Dress Movement and Cycling for Women. He was awarded 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 ...

by the Geological Society in 1913.

Posthumous reputation

His reputation as an over-zealous splitter seems to have been justified. As one example, a 1966 analysis of his observations on '' Sonninia'' (a genus of ammonite in family

Sonniniidae Sonniniidae is a diverse family of Middle Jurassic ammonites ranging from those with stout evolute shells to those whose shells are sharply rimmed, oxyconic. The keel, which runs along the middle of the venter, is typically hollow. Sutures vary f ...

) reduced 70 species down to two. His splitting has been called "extreme". He seems also to have argued on what was, according to the modern scientific consensus, the wrong side of the ontogeny vs. phylogeny debate. That reputation hindered recognition of his contributions to

chronostratigraphy Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that studies the ages of rock strata in relation to time. The ultimate aim of chronostratigraphy is to arrange the sequence of deposition and the time of deposition of all rocks within a geological ...

. In 1995, J. H. Callomon acknowledged their significance. In 1996, Peter Doyle wrote, "Buckman's original work involved a high degree of precision in collecting and measurement of stratigraphical sections which demonstrated the potential for the high-resolution scheme he later constructed. Although Buckman's later excesses cast doubt on the accuracy of this work, detailed observations have shown it to be broadly correct and of great importance in long-distance correlation with North America, for example. Clearly, the excesses of Buckman's later theorising have long held back an important contribution to detailed, high-resolution ammonite biostratigraphy". In 1997, H. S. Torrens re-assessed and vindicated Buckman's work.

Publications

Several of his many publications are available online through the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckman, Sydney Savory 1860 births 1929 deaths Place of death missing English palaeontologists Amateur paleontologists English geologists People from Cirencester Lyell Medal winners