Charles Emerson Beecher (October 9, 1856 – February 14, 1904) was an American

paleontologist 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 ...

most famous for the thorough excavation, preparation and study of trilobite ventral anatomy from specimens collected at

Beecher's Trilobite Bed Beecher's Trilobite Bed is a Konservat-Lagerstätte of Late Ordovician (Caradoc) age located within the Frankfort Shale in Cleveland's Glen, Oneida County, New York, USA.Yale Peabody Museum, eventually rising to head that institution.

Early life

Charles Emerson Beecher, the son of Moses and Emily Emerson Beecher, was born in Dunkirk, New York, October 9, 1856. In early childhood Beecher's family moved to Warren, Pennsylvania, where he attended private and high schools. A born naturalist and collector, Beecher began collecting fossils from the Chemung and Waverly Formations about Warren, resulting in an extensive collection of fossil Phyllocarids and freshwater Unionids presented to the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol ...

in Albany in 1886 and 1887. 20,000 specimens (40,000 if duplicates are included), largely collected by Beecher himself, were present, including at least 121 species of land and fresh-water Mollusca. 102 localities are represented, seventy of which are in New York State, the others being in various parts of the United States, especially Warren, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Beecher received an undergraduate degree (B.S.) from

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1878.

Academic life

Following graduation, Beecher worked for 10 years as personal assistant to the difficult, but highly influential James Hall (who also counted Fielding Meek, Charles Walcott and Josiah Whitney among his assistants) the State Geologist of New York. Working with Hall provided a strong background in systematic paleontology and allowed Beecher to further improve his fossil preparation and photography skills. Beecher is credited in many of Hall's publications for his fossil preparation, photographic and systematic contributions. In 1888, at the request of then Curator of the Geological Collections

Othniel Charles Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among ...

, Beecher moved to

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

, to oversee the Yale Peabody Museum's growing collection of invertebrate fossils.Yale Peabody Museum biography of Beecher
/ref> In 1891 he was Instructor for Paleontology at

Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffiel ...

(SSS) and took the geology course for

James Dwight Dana James Dwight Dana FRS FRSE (February 12, 1813 – April 14, 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcanic activity, and the origin and structure of continent ...

, who was ill. Beecher was awarded his doctorate for his study on Brachiospongidae (enigmatic Silurian sponges) in 1891. In 1892 Beecher renewed his working relationship with

Charles Schuchert Charles Schuchert (July 3, 1858 – November 20, 1942) was an American invertebrate paleontologist who was a leader in the development of paleogeography, the study of the distribution of lands and seas in the geological past. Biography He was bo ...

(who had also worked with Hall) preparing slabs of Crawfordsville crinoids for the 'Chicago Exposition'.Yale Peabody Museum biography of Schuchert
/ref> Remarkable preparations of brachiopods, trilobites, Crawfordsville crinoids and ''

Uintacrinus ''Uintacrinus'' ("crinoid from the Uinta Mountains") is an extinct genus of crinoids from the Cretaceous of Kansas. It was unusual among crinoids because it had no stalk, and probably floated above the seafloor. It lived in the Western Interior ...

'' specimens for exhibition at Yale Peabody Museum were especially noteworthy and pay tribute to Beecher's exceptional skills as a fossil preparator. Beecher was first to thoroughly excavate a thin deposit of shale that now bears his name;

Beecher's Trilobite Bed Beecher's Trilobite Bed is a Konservat-Lagerstätte of Late Ordovician (Caradoc) age located within the Frankfort Shale in Cleveland's Glen, Oneida County, New York, USA.Martha Buck's 2004 senior thesis on Beecher's Trilobite Bed
Exceptional preservation (by

pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...

) of soft body parts at Beecher's Trilobite Bed is geologically rare and was later recognized as a highly significant

paleontological 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 foss ...

site, a Konservat-Lagerstätten. In 1893 Beecher began the publication of his brilliant papers on the structure, development and classification of

trilobites Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the A ...

, his preparatory skill and patience worked out the structure of antennae, legs and other ventral appendages; previously impossible on any known material. Beecher's bachelor days at New Haven (where he roomed in "the attic," the top story of the SSS with Louis Valentine Pirsson,

Samuel Lewis Penfield Samuel Lewis Penfield (January 16, 1856 – August 12, 1906) was an American analytic chemist, mineralologist, and crystallographer who first obtained the chemical structures of more than two dozen naturally occurring minerals."Samuel Lewis Penfie ...

Horace Lemuel Wells Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his '' ...

) came to an end on September 12, 1894, when he married Miss Mary Salome Galligan. Beecher was a leading proponent of

Neo-Lamarckism Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...

(epitomized by

Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interes ...

and

Alpheus Hyatt Alpheus Hyatt (April 5, 1838 – January 15, 1902) was an American zoologist and palaeontologist. Biography Alpheus Hyatt II was born in Washington, D.C. to Alpheus Hyatt and Harriet Randolph (King) Hyatt. He briefly attended the Mary ...

) and also argued for

orthogenesis Orthogenesis, also known as orthogenetic evolution, progressive evolution, evolutionary progress, or progressionism, is an obsolete biological hypothesis that organisms have an innate tendency to evolve in a definite direction towards some g ...

and racial

senescence Senescence () or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. The word ''senescence'' can refer to either cellular senescence or to senescence of the whole organism. Organismal senescence invol ...

. Beecher's promotion path at Yale was rapid. Promoted to Professor of Historical Geology at SSS in 1897 and, on the death of Marsh in 1899, Beecher succeeded him as Curator of the Geological Collections, Yale Peabody Museum. Beecher's title at SSS was later renamed University Professor of Paleontology. In June 1899, Beecher gave his large personal collection to the Peabody Museum. Representing 20 years of work, the 100,000+ specimens were all self collected. Mostly Devonian and Lower Carboniferous material from New York and Pennsylvania, the donated collection contained about 500 type specimens and also contained hundreds of specimens representing developmental stages, rare species, and exquisitely prepared examples showing structural detail. All specimens were meticulously labeled, named and provenanced. Mounted Edmontosaurus

At the same time as the donation, Beecher was made head of the museum following Marsh's death, and was put to mount specimens. The first one he chose was YPM VP 2182, a well-complete and articulate

hadrosaur Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which includ ...

dinosaur identified then as "''Claosaurus''" ''annectans'' but now understood to be ''

Edmontosaurus ''Edmontosaurus'' ( ) (meaning "lizard from Edmonton") is a genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur. It contains two known species: ''Edmontosaurus regalis'' and '' Edmontosaurus annectens''. Fossils of ''E. regalis'' have been found in rock ...

''. The mount serves the first of many things, such as the first nearly complete dinosaur mounted in the US, and the first mounted dinosaur to have its spine horizontal to the ground, rather than be upright and tail-dragging. Beecher recognised from trackways the absence of tail marks, as well as how the

ischium The ischium () form ...

of the dinosaur would get in the way of the tail. Beecher died suddenly of heart disease on February 14, 1904 leaving many of his studies unfinished. Beecher was survived by his wife, two young daughters, mother and brother. Beecher was succeeded by his close friend and colleague

as Curator of the Geological Collections.

Impact

Although Beecher is most noted for his seminal work on trilobites he is also regarded for his work on corals and was ultimately regarded as a leading authority on fossil crustacea and brachiopodaC.E. Beecher biography from Lefalophodon
/ref> and noted for contributions in evolution. Yale reprinted a collection of some of Beecher's most important papers
Studies in Evolution
as part of their bicentennial in 1901, although a modest Beecher deplored as extravagance the republication of papers already in print. Beecher's bibliography includes some 100+ scientific papers, often brief, describing 7 new orders, 1 new family, 2 new subfamilies, 7 new genera, and 20 new species. An apparently low content of stratigraphic and systematic paleontology publications in his body of work should be offset by his contribution to the work of Hall. Obituaries published in some of the leading academic journals of the time attest to his professional impact:

American Journal of Science The ''American Journal of Science'' (''AJS'') is the United States of America's longest-running scientific journal, having been published continuously since its conception in 1818 by Professor Benjamin Silliman, who edited and financed it himself ...

; American Geologist; Science; Museum's Journal ondon Geological Magazine ondon and

American Naturalist ''The American Naturalist'' is the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society of Naturalists, whose purpose is "to advance and to diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and other broad biological principles so as to enhance th ...

. A comprehensive re-examination of exceptionally preserved trilobites published in 1920 was dedicated to Beecher; his contribution was still significant nearly 20 years after his death.

Career summary

* B.S., University of Michigan, 1878 * Assistant to James Hall,

, 1878–1888 * Assistant in Paleontology, New York State Museum * Consulting Paleontologist, New York State Museum * Assistant, Yale Peabody Museum, 1888–1899 * Ph.D. awarded, Yale University, 1889 * Instructor in Paleontology,

, Yale, 1891–1892 * Assistant Professor of Paleontology, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1892–1897 * Member of the governing board of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1892 * Professor of Historical Geology, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1897–1902 * Corresponding member of the

Boston Society of Natural History The Boston Society of Natural History (1830–1948) in Boston, Massachusetts, was an organization dedicated to the study and promotion of natural history. It published a scholarly journal and established a museum. In its first few decades, the s ...

, 1898 * Curator of Geological Collections, Yale Peabody Museum, 1899–1904 * Member of the National Academy of Sciences, 1899 * Foreign correspondent of the Geological Society of London, 1899 * Fellow of the Geological Society of America, 1899 * Member of the Board of Trustees, Yale Peabody Museum, 1899 * Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Yale Peabody Museum * Member of the Executive Committee, Yale Peabody Museum * President of the

Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences is a learned society founded in 1799 in New Haven, Connecticut "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest and happiness of a free and virtuous people." Its purpose is the ...

, 1900–1902 * University Professor of Paleontology, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1902–1904

References

External links

National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beecher, Charles Emerson American geologists American paleontologists 1856 births 1904 deaths University of Michigan alumni Yale University alumni Yale University faculty Fellows of the Geological Society of America Lamarckism