Alfred Nicholson Leeds (9 March 184725 August 1917) was an English amateur

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Biography

Leeds was born at Eyebury,

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, the youngest of the eight children of Edward Thurlow Leeds (180251) and Eliza Mary Leeds (née Nicholson). He was educated at

Warwick School Warwick School is a selective, independent day and boarding school in Warwick, England in the public school tradition. Known until about 1900 as King's School, Warwick, it is believed to have been founded by Æthelflæd of Mercia in 914 AD ...

. He had wanted to become a doctor, but circumstances meant that from 1868 he had to take on the management of Eyebury Farm (in

The Fens The Fens, also known as the , in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a ...

, and historically attached to

Peterborough Abbey Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Pau ...

) as a

gentleman farmer In the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, a gentleman farmer is a landowner who has a farm (gentleman's farm) as part of his estate and who farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit or sustenance. The Collins English Diction ...

. His elder brother Charles, a student at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, had been encouraged by Professor John Phillips to persevere in collecting

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 preserved ...

s from near his home. Alfred joined him in these searches, and between them they developed better methods of disinterring, and of scientifically recording, fossils in soft

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

than had been used before. (They rewarded the workmen at the clay pits (which served a brickworks in

Fletton Fletton is an area of the city of Peterborough, in the Peterborough district, in the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England, south of the River Nene. Notable for its large brickworks, the area has given its name to "Fletton bricks", Admin ...

, Peterborough) for not doing so themselves, but instead sending notice to Eyebury.) In 1887, Charles emigrated to New Zealand; but Alfred continued to search for fossils, assisted by his wife and by their second son, Edward Thurlow Leeds (18771955, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum 192845). He amassed one of the largest collections of fossil vertebrates in the world. In 1889, his portrait was painted by the 17-year-old William Nicholson. From 1890 onwards, he began to present his most important specimens of

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

fossils from the

Oxford Clay The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the ...

near Peterborough to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society; in 1893, he was awarded part of its Lyell Fund. Other museums in the UK and elsewhere hold items from his collection; including the National Museum of Ireland. An extinct

genus 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 nom ...

of fish, ''

Leedsichthys ''Leedsichthys'' is an extinct genus of pachycormid fish that lived in the oceans of the Middle to Late Jurassic.Liston, JJ (2004). An overview of the pachycormiform ''Leedsichthys''. In: Arratia G and Tintori A (eds) Mesozoic Fishes 3 - System ...

'', and several extinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of 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 the appropriate s ...

have been named in his honour.

Discoveries and honours

* Early 1880she acquired the skeleton of a stegosaur

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

found in a brick pit near Eye, Cambridgeshire. In 1887, it was described by

John Whitaker Hulke John Whitaker Hulke FRCS FRS FGS (6 November 1830 – 19 February 1895) was a British surgeon, geologist and fossil collector. He was the son of a physician in Deal, who became a Huxleyite despite being deeply religious. Hulke became Huxley's ...

as a new

, ''

Omosaurus ''Omosaurus'' is a dubious genus of extinct crurotarsan reptile, possibly a phytosaur, from the Late Triassic (Carnian) of North Carolina. Only scant remains are known, which makes ''Omosaurus'' hard to classify. The type, and only species, ' ...

durobrivensis''. It is now considered to be within the

'' Lexovisaurus''. * 1880she collected fossils of a large

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

bony fish, which proved to be from the novel genus ''Leedsichthys'', described and named in his honour by

Arthur Smith Woodward Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, FRS (23 May 1864 – 2 September 1944) was an English palaeontologist, known as a world expert in fossil fish. He also described the Piltdown Man fossils, which were later determined to be fraudulent. He is not relate ...

in 1889. * 1887Hulke described a species of sauropod, ''

Ornithopsis ''Ornithopsis'' (meaning "bird-likeness") was a medium-sized Early Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur, from England. The type species, which is the only species seen as valid today, is ''O. hulkei''. History of discovery Gideon Algernon Mantell descr ...

leedsi'', naming it in his honour. It has been since been renamed '' Cetiosauriscus leedsi''. * 1889the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

of a genus of

iguanodont Iguanodontia (the iguanodonts) is a clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Some members include ''Camptosaurus'', ''Dryosaurus'', ''Iguanodon'', '' Tenontosaurus'', and the hadrosaurids or "duck-bil ...

ian dinosaur was named ''

Camptosaurus ''Camptosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period of western North America and possibly also Europe. The name means 'flexible lizard' ( Greek (') meaning 'bent' and (') meaning 'li ...

leedsi'' in his honour by

Richard Lydekker Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was an English naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history. Biography Richard Lydekker was born at Tavistock Square in London. His father was Gerard Wolfe Lydekker, ...

. It has since been renamed '' Callovosaurus leedsi'', * 1893Lydekker named the type species of a genus of

ankylosauria Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. ...

n ornithischian dinosaur '' Sarcolestes leedsi'' in his honour. * 1901

Harry Seeley Harry Govier Seeley (18 February 1839 – 8 January 1909) was a British paleontologist. Early life Seeley was born in London on 18 February 1839, the second son of Richard Hovill Seeley, a goldsmith, and his second wife Mary Govier. When his fat ...

described a species of stegosaur ''

leedsi'', naming it in his honour. The genus has since been renamed ''

Dacentrurus ''Dacentrurus'' (meaning "tail full of points"), originally known as ''Omosaurus'', is a genus of stegosaurian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (154 - 140 mya) of Europe. Its type species, ''Omosaurus armatus'', was named in 18 ...

''. * 1907-09he collected a fossil, which in 2013 proved to be the sole species of a geosaurine metriorhynchid

crocodyliform Crocodyliformes is a clade of crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the only pseudo ...

known within the genus '' Tyrannoneustes''.

References

1847 births People from Peterborough 1917 deaths Place of death unknown People educated at Warwick School Amateur paleontologists English palaeontologists {{paleontologist-stub

Biography

Discoveries and honours

See also

References