Charles Whitney Gilmore (March 11, 1874 – September 27, 1945) 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 ...

who gained renown in the early 20th century for his work on

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

fossils during his career at the United States National Museum (now the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

). Gilmore named many

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 ...

s in North America and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

, including the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...

'' Alamosaurus'', ''

Alectrosaurus ''Alectrosaurus'' (; meaning "alone lizard") is a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, about some 96 million years ago in what is now the Iren Dabasu Formation. It was a medium-sized, ...

'', ''

Archaeornithomimus ''Archaeornithomimus'' (meaning "ancient bird mimic") is a genus of ornithomimosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, around 96 million years ago in the Iren Dabasu Formation. Discovery and naming In 192 ...

'', ''

Bactrosaurus ''Bactrosaurus'' (; meaning "Club lizard," "baktron" = club + ''sauros'' = lizard) is a genus of herbivorous hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, about 96-85 million years ago. The position ''Bactrosaurus'' occupi ...

'', ''

Brachyceratops ''Brachyceratops'' ('short horned face') is a dubious genus of ceratopsian dinosaur known only from partial juvenile specimens dating to the late Cretaceous Period of Montana, United States. ''Brachyceratops'' has historically been known from ju ...

'', ''

Chirostenotes ''Chirostenotes'' ( ; named from Greek 'narrow-handed') is a genus of oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous (about 76.5 million years ago) of Alberta, Canada. The type species is ''Chirostenotes pergracilis''. History of discover ...

'', '' Mongolosaurus'', ''

Parrosaurus ''Hypsibema missouriensis'' (; originally ''Neosaurus missouriensis'', first renamed to ''Parrosaurus missouriensis'', also spelled ''Hypsibema missouriense'') is a species of plant-eating dinosaur in the genus '' Hypsibema'', and the state din ...

'', ''

Pinacosaurus ''Pinacosaurus'' (meaning "Plank lizard") is a genus of ankylosaurid thyreophoran dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous (Santonian-Campanian, roughly 75 million to 71 million years ago), mainly in Mongolia and China. The first r ...

'', '' Styracosaurus ovatus'' (now ''

Rubeosaurus ''Styracosaurus'' ( ; meaning "spiked lizard" from the Ancient Greek / "spike at the butt-end of a spear-shaft" and / "lizard") is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period (Campanian stage), about 75.5 to 74.5 ...

'') and ''

Thescelosaurus ''Thescelosaurus'' ( ; ancient Greek - (''-'') meaning "godlike", "marvellous", or "wondrous" and (') "lizard") was a genus of small neornithischian dinosaur that appeared at the very end of the Late Cretaceous period in North America. It was ...

''.

Career

Gilmore was working as a paleontologist for the

Carnegie Museum of Natural History The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. Housing some 22 million ...

in 1901 when he found the skeleton of a young

, which was classified the following year as an ''

Apatosaurus ''Apatosaurus'' (; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, ''A. ajax'', in 1877, an ...

''. In 1903 Gilmore was hired by the United States National Museum (now the

), part of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. His first assignment there was to work on the vast

O. C. 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 h ...

collection amassed during the

Bone Wars The Bone Wars, also known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, was a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Ac ...

; the fossils had been transferred from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

's new

Peabody Museum of Natural History The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is among the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othn ...

after the collection outgrew the smaller museum's storage capacity. Gilmore and assistant preparator Norman H. Boss, who later became Chief Preparator at the museum, mounted a complete ''

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 rocks ...

'' in 1903. Together they built the world's first mounted ''

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivore, herbivorous Chasmosaurinae, chasmosaurine Ceratopsidae, ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period, about 68 m ...

'' skeleton, which went on display in 1905. In May 1907, Gilmore headed an expedition to Alaska to search for fossils of

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

vertebrates. Gilmore was named Custodian of Fossil Reptiles in 1908, and settled in the Park View neighborhood at 451 Park Road, NW. In 1923 Gilmore and Boss collected a ''

Diplodocus longus ''Diplodocus'' (, , or ) was a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπλ ...

'' in

Dinosaur National Monument Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. Although most of the monument area is in ...

, Utah. Under Gilmore's direction, the specimen was mounted and displayed at the National Museum of Natural History in 1931, where the specimen proved the museum's most popular exhibit for the next 20 years. The museum promoted Gilmore to Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology in 1924. Gilmore led sixteen expeditions to collect vertebrate fossils during his tenure as Curator. While much of his work was concentrated in Utah and Wyoming, he led an excavation of Montana's

Two Medicine Formation The Two Medicine Formation is a geological formation, or rock body, in northwestern Montana and southern Alberta that was deposited between and (million years ago), during Campanian (Late Cretaceous) time. It crops out to the east of the Rocky M ...

in 1913, returning for further work in 1928 and again in 1935. As Curator, Gilmore was often asked to identify fossils brought to the museum by the public. In 1938, he examined fossilized teeth discovered by a limestone quarrying operation and identified them as rare Pleistocene fossils of tapir, bear, and an extinct North American lion. A prolific writer, Gilmore published 170 scientific papers during his career, including monographic studies on the osteology of ''Apatosaurus'' and ''

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 ...

'' and the osteology of carnivorous and armored dinosaurs. As well as describing new dinosaurs, Gilmore wrote several monographs, including a 1914 monograph on ''

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been foun ...

'', a 1920 monograph on carnivorous dinosaurs, a 1936 review of ''Apatosaurus'', as well as a more focused 1925 study of the Carnegie juvenile '' Camarasaurus''. Gilmore retired from the Smithsonian in 1945, and died on September 27 that year. He was buried on September 29, 1945 at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

.National Cemetery Administration. ''U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca. 1775-2006'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: National Cemetery Administration. Nationwide Gravesite Locator. The scientific names of '' Gilmoremys'' (an extinct soft-shelled turtle named in 2011), '' Shuangmiaosaurus gilmorei'' (an herbivorous dinosaur named in 2003), '' Richardoestesia gilmorei'' (a bipedal dinosaur named in 1990), and ''

Gilmoreosaurus ''Gilmoreosaurus'' (meaning "Charles Whitney Gilmore's lizard") is the name given to a genus of dinosaur from the Cretaceous of Asia. The type species is ''Gilmoreosaurus mongoliensis''. It is believed to be a hadrosaur or iguanodont from the Ire ...

'' (a disputed dinosaur genus named in 1979) honor Gilmore's contributions to vertebrate paleontology.

Selected works

*1908. ''Smithsonian exploration in Alaska in 1907 in search of Pleistocene fossil vertebrates.'' *1909. ''A new rhynchocephalian reptile from the Jurassic of Wyoming, with notes on the fauna of "Quarry 9".'' *1909. ''Osteology of the jurassic reptile Camptosaurus: with a revision of the species of the genus, and description of two new species.'' *1914. ''Osteology of the armored Dinosauria in the United States National museum : with special reference to the genus Stegosaurus.'' *1914. ''A new ceratopsian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Montana, with a note on Hypacrosaurus.'' *1915. ''Osteology of Thescelosaurus, an orthopodus dinosaur from the Lance Formation of Wyoming.'' *1916. ''The fossil turtles of the Uinta formation.'' *1917. ''Brachyceratops, a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Two Medicine formation of Montana, with notes on associated fossil reptiles.'' *1919. ''Reptilian faunas of the Torrejon, Puerco, and underlying Upper Cretaceous formations of San Juan County, New Mexico.'' *1920. ''Osteology of the carnivorous Dinosauria in the United States National museum, with special reference to the genera Antrodemus (Allosaurus) and Ceratosaurus.'' *1921. ''The fauna of the Arundel formation of Maryland.'' *1922. '' "A new description of Saniwa ensidens Leidy, an extinct varanid lizard from Wyoming.'' *1924. ''On the genus Stephanosaurus, with a description of the type specimen of Lambeosaurus lambei.'' *1924. ''A new coelurid dinosaur from the Belly River Cretaceous of Alberta.'' *1930. ''Cold-blooded vertebrates. Parts II and III: Amphibians and Reptiles.'' with

Samuel F. Hildebrand Samuel Frederick Hildebrand (August 15, 1883 – March 16, 1949) was an American ichthyologist. Life and work Hildebrand was the son of German-born parents who immigrated to the United States in 1864. From 1908 to 1910 he worked as an assis ...

and Doris M. Cochran. *1933. ''On the dinosaurian fauna of the Iren Dabasu Formation.'' *1933. ''Two new dinosaurian reptiles from Mongolia with notes on some fragmentary specimens.'' *1938. ''Fossil snakes of North America.'' *1939. ''A review of recent progress in reptilian paleontology.'' *1945. ''A new Eocene lizard from Wyoming'' with

Glenn Lowell Jepsen Glenn Lowell "Jep" Jepsen (4 March 1903 – 15 October 1974) was an American paleontologist and professor of vertebrate paleontology at Princeton University. He collected and described many fossil species particularly from the Oligocene of the Badla ...

. *1945. ''A new sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Missouri'' with Dan R. Stewart. *1946. ''A new crocodilian from the Eocene of Utah'' (published posthumously).

References

External links

*http://dinosours.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/extinct-monsters-history-of-paleobiology-at-the-smithsonian/ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilmore, Charles W. American paleontologists 1874 births 1945 deaths Smithsonian Institution people

Career

Selected works

See also

References

External links