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Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr. (March 5, 1873 – March 19, 1912) was an American zoologist who made important contributions to
cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living a ...
–especially in
chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins ar ...
s and their roles in sex determination–as well as the biology of birds and several groups invertebrates, naming many species of
ribbon worm Nemertea is a phylum of animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms, consisting of 1300 known species. Most ribbon worms are very slim, usually only a few millimeters wide, although a few have relatively short but wide bodies. Many h ...
s,
rotifer The rotifers (, from the Latin , "wheel", and , "bearing"), commonly called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals. They were first described by Rev. John H ...
s, and spiders. He studied in Berlin before becoming a researcher and professor at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
, where he primarily worked until his death at the age of 39. In his short career he published 80 scientific papers and two books.


Early life and family

Montgomery was born in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
on March 5, 1873, to a wealthy Pennsylvania family. His father, Thomas Harrison Montgomery Sr., was a businessman and writer who authored several historical accounts and was president of the
Insurance Company of North America Insurance Company of North America (INA) is the oldest stock insurance company in the United States, founded in Philadelphia in 1792. It was one of the largest American insurance companies of the 19th and 20th centuries before merging with Connect ...
from 1882 until his death in 1905. His mother, Anna Morton, was daughter of noted physician and naturalist
Samuel George Morton Samuel George Morton (January 26, 1799 – May 15, 1851) was an American physician, natural scientist, and writer who argued against the single creation story of the Bible, monogenism, instead supporting a theory of multiple racial creations, p ...
. Thomas Sr. and Anna had nine children–six sons and three daughters–of which Thomas Jr. was the sixth born. His older brother James Alan Montgomery (1866–1949) would become a noted
Oriental scholar Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studi ...
. At the age of nine, his family moved to the countryside near
West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the ...
, where young Thomas soon began collecting field notes and bird specimens, amassing around 250 bird skins by age 15 and 450 by 17. He graduated from the
Episcopal Academy The Episcopal Academy, founded in 1785, is a private, co-educational school for grades Pre-K through 12 based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Prior to 2008, the main campus was located in Merion Station and the satellite campus was located in ...
in Philadelphia in 1889. In 1889, Montgomery enrolled in the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
, where he studied for two years before a summer trip to Europe inspired him to complete his education in Germany, enrolling in the
University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Will ...
in 1891 and completing a PhD in 1894 at the age of 21. His thesis was primarily supervised by
Franz Eilhard Schulze Franz Eilhard Schulze (22 March 1840 – 2 November 1921) was a German anatomist and zoologist born in Eldena, near Greifswald. Biography He studied at the Universities of Bonn and Rostock. In 1863, he received his doctorate from Rostock, whe ...
, who worked largely with sponges and other invertebrates. In 1901 Montgomery married Priscilla Braislin, and they had three sons. Priscilla Montgomery later worked as librarian of
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, i ...
.


Career

Montgomery returned to America in early 1895 and spent three years as a researcher at the
Wistar Institute The Wistar Institute () is an independent, nonprofit research institution in biomedical science, with expertise in oncology, immunology, infectious disease and vaccine research. Located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, Wistar was ...
in Philadelphia. During this period he spent consecutive summers working with
Alexander Agassiz Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (December 17, 1835March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. Biography Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and immigrated to ...
at his Rhode Island laboratory, the University of Pennsylvania marine laboratory at
Sea Isle City, New Jersey Sea Isle City is a city in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's year-round population was 2,104, a decrease of 10 (− ...
, and at the
Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...
, Massachusetts; the latter to which he would return nearly every summer for the rest of his life. In 1897 he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania where he worked until 1903, then was professor at the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
from 1903 to 1908 until returning to Pennsylvania where he worked as head of the zoology department until his death in 1912. He was a member of the
American Society of Zoologists The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology is organized to integrate the many fields of specialization which occur in the broad field of biology.. The society was formed in 1902 as the American Society of Zoologists, through the merger of ...
(president in 1910),
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...
,
American Society of Naturalists The American Society of Naturalists was founded in 1883 and is one of the oldest professional societies dedicated to the biological sciences in North America. The purpose of the Society is "to advance and diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and o ...
,
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communi ...
,
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 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 ...
, and the Texas Academy of Science (president in 1905). He was co-editor of the '' Journal of Morphology'' from 1908 to 1912.


Cytology

Harrison published 25 papers on
cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living a ...
, primarily using insect cells. His most notable research includes early observations of the pairing of maternal and paternal
chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins ar ...
s during cell division. He was first to propose that chromosomes play the dominant role in sex determination, although he rejected the idea that sex was determined by chromosomes alone, and some historians claim he was the first to propose the
chromosome theory of inheritance A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...
, an idea widely credited to
Walter Sutton Walter Stanborough Sutton (April 5, 1877 – November 10, 1916) was an American geneticist and physician whose most significant contribution to present-day biology was his theory that the Mendelian laws of inheritance could be applied to ch ...
and
Theodor Boveri Theodor Heinrich Boveri (12 October 1862 – 15 October 1915) was a German zoologist, comparative anatomist and co-founder of modern cytology. He was notable for the first hypothesis regarding cellular processes that cause cancer, and for des ...
. He also detailed the morphology of the
nucleolus The nucleolus (, plural: nucleoli ) is the largest structure in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. It is best known as the site of ribosome biogenesis, which is the synthesis of ribosomes. The nucleolus also participates in the formation of s ...
, and observed that in some hemipteran insects the
germ cell Germ or germs may refer to: Science * Germ (microorganism), an informal word for a pathogen * Germ cell, cell that gives rise to the gametes of an organism that reproduces sexually * Germ layer, a primary layer of cells that forms during embry ...
s of males but not females contain odd numbers of chromosomes, which is now known to influence sex-determination, A resolution of the American Society of Zoologists read after his death stated "it would be impossible to write a text-book upon the role of the chromosomes in the determination of sex without referring to his crucial labors in this field."


Worms, spiders, and other invertebrates

Montgomery's earliest papers concerned ribbon worms (phylum Nemertea), a group on which he would write 10 papers. He also published 10 papers on horsehair worms (phylum Nematomorpha) and two on
rotifer The rotifers (, from the Latin , "wheel", and , "bearing"), commonly called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals. They were first described by Rev. John H ...
s. Montgomery wrote 14 scientific articles on
spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species d ...
s, and he was known to keep large amounts in his laboratory and home from which he recorded observations of courtship, mating, and other behaviors. He wrote on the taxonomy of
wolf spider Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae (). They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude, hunt alone, and do not spin webs. Some are opportunistic hunters, pouncing upon prey as they find it or ...
s (family Lycosidae),
lynx spider Lynx spider (Oxyopidae) is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Tamerlan Thorell in 1870. Most species make little use of webs, instead spending their lives as hunting spiders on plants. Many species frequent flowers in particular, ...
s (Oxyopidae), and
nursery web spider Nursery web spiders (Pisauridae) is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1890. They resemble wolf spiders (Lycosidae) except for several key differences. Wolf spiders have two very prominent eyes in addition to the o ...
s (Pisauridae). In a 1909 paper detailing the anatomy and development of various organs in spiders he rejected a prevalent idea at the time that arachnids evolved from Merostomata (a now obsolete group including
horseshoe crabs Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are chelicerates, most closely related to arach ...
and the extinct
eurypterid Eurypterids, often informally called sea scorpions, are a group of extinct arthropods that form the order Eurypterida. The earliest known eurypterids date to the Darriwilian stage of the Ordovician period 467.3 million years ago. The group is ...
s) adapting to a terrestrial life, and proposed instead that the aquatic lifestyle of horseshoe crabs evolved from terrestrial ancestors.


Ornithology

During his youth, Montgomery made an impressive collection of bird specimens from the vicinity of West Chester, Pennsylvania, many of which are now preserved in the ornithology collection at 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 ...
. His collection consisted of 145 species collected from 1885 to 1891, and again from 1895 to 1897. Montgomery is known for proposing the hypothesis that migratory behavior is negatively correlated with rates of evolutionary diversification, now known as "Montgomery's Rule". He published original research on the diet and foraging ecology of
Long-eared Owl The long-eared owl (''Asio otus''), also known as the northern long-eared owlOlsen, P.D. & Marks, J.S. (2019). ''Northern Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)''. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook o ...
(''Asio otus'') and
Short-eared Owl The short-eared owl (''Asio flammeus'') is a widespread grassland species in the family Strigidae. Owls belonging to genus ''Asio'' are known as the eared owls, as they have tufts of feathers resembling mammalian ears. These "ear" tufts may or ...
(''A. flammeus''). His book ''The Protection of Our Native Birds'' (1906) was an important early contribution to the bird conservation movement.


Other works

Montgomery also published on a variety of other topics including principles of animal classification and larval development of the
red-backed salamander The red-backed salamander (''Plethodon cinereus'') is a small, hardy woodland salamander species in the family Plethodontidae. It is also known as the redback salamander, eastern red-backed salamander,Integrated Taxonomic Information System nter ...
. His 1908 book, ''The Analysis of Racial Descent in Animals'', described his ideas of classification. He contributed articles to ''
Popular Science Monthly ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, inclu ...
'', and also published a memoir of his father in 1905.


Death

Montgomery was stricken with
pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
on February 15, 1912, and died in a Philadelphia hospital on March 19, only a few days after his thirty-ninth birthday. The day of his death occurred on the opening day of the a celebration commemorating the centennial of Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: his final paper appeared as the first article of its centennial issue.


Notes


References


Sources

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Montgomery, Thomas Harrison Jr. 1873 births 1912 deaths American ornithologists American arachnologists American cell biologists University of Pennsylvania faculty Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty Scientists from New York City Scientists from Philadelphia Deaths from pneumonia in Pennsylvania 19th-century American zoologists 20th-century American zoologists