Francis Rex Parrington (20 February 1905 – 17 April 1981) was a British vertebrate

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 ...

and comparative

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. A

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

, he was director of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology and past president of the zoology section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early life

Francis Rex Parrington was born on 20 February 1905 in Bromborough near

Neston Neston is a town and civil parish on the Wirral Peninsula, in Cheshire, England. It is part of the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The village of Parkgate is located to the north west and the villages of Little Neston and Nes ...

in Cheshire, the youngest of three children of brewery owner Frank Harding Parrington and his wife Bessie Harding. After the death of his father in 1907, his mother remarried and 'Rex' Parrington was brought up in Central Liverpool, where his stepfather was a general practitioner. His interest in natural history developed in childhood, and he collected wildflowers, beetles, and fossils. In 1920, his family moved to North Wales, where he could freely explore his interests in the natural world. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby, and at

Liverpool College Liverpool College is a school in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. It was one of the thirteen founding members of the Headmasters' Conference (HMC). History Liverpool College was the first of many public schools founded in the Victorian ...

. In 1924, he went up to

Sidney Sussex College Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

, Cambridge, where he studied Natural Sciences and was supervised by

Clive Forster-Cooper Sir Clive Forster Cooper, FRS (3 April 1880 – 23 August 1947) was an English palaeontologist and Director of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology and Natural History Museum in London. He was the first to describe ''Paraceratherium'', al ...

, Director of the

Cambridge University Museum of Zoology The University Museum of Zoology is a museum of the University of Cambridge and part of the research community of the Department of Zoology. The public is welcome and admission is free (2018). The Museum of Zoology is in the David Attenborough ...

Career

In 1927, Parrington became Assistant to the Director of the

, where he was to work for over 43 years. During the 1930s, he was involved in a number of

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 ...

expeditions; to Ruhuhu and

Tendaguru The Tendaguru Formation, or Tendaguru Beds are a highly fossiliferous formation and Lagerstätte located in the Lindi Region of southeastern Tanzania. The formation represents the oldest sedimentary unit of the Mandawa Basin, overlying Neoprotero ...

Tanganyika Territory Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various guises from 1916 to 1961. It was initially administered under a military occupation regime. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a L ...

(modern

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

) to collect

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

fossils and to Scotland to collect specimens of Palaeozoic fishes at Achanarras. The African specimens collected by Parrington are scientifically significant, as they represent critical stages in vertebrate evolution, including diversification of Synapsids, the evolution of hearing in mammals and reptiles, and early

archosaurs Archosauria () is a clade of diapsids, with birds and crocodilians as the only living representatives. Archosaurs are broadly classified as reptiles, in the cladistic sense of the term which includes birds. Extinct archosaurs include non-avia ...

. In 1938, Parrington became Lecturer in Zoology and was appointed Director of the

. In 1958 he was awarded

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

at the University of Cambridge; in 1962 he was elected a

; in 1963 he was appointed Reader in Vertebrate Zoology. He was President of the Zoology Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1972 he was elected an Honorary (Life) Member of the

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world. Mission and Activities SVP has about 2,300 members inter ...

. Parrington died in Surrey on 17 April 1981, at the age of 76.

''Nyasasaurus parringtoni''

During his expeditions to the Middle Triassic

Manda Beds The Manda Formation (also known as the Manda Beds) is a Middle Triassic (Anisian?) or possibly Late Triassic (Carnian?) geologic formation in Tanzania. It preserves fossils of many terrestrial vertebrates from the Triassic, including some of the e ...

of Tanzania during the 1930s, Parrington discovered the earliest known dinosaur or dinosauriform reptile, dating to 243 million years ago, '' Nyasasaurus parringtoni''. During the 1950s, Parrington supervised the doctoral thesis of

Alan J. Charig Alan Jack Charig (1 July 1927 – 15 July 1997) was an English palaeontologist and writer who popularised his subject on television and in books at the start of the wave of interest in dinosaurs in the 1970s. Charig was, though, first and fo ...

, who was researching Triassic archosaurs of

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

. ''Nyasasaurus parringtoni'' was published in 2012 by

Sterling Nesbitt Sterling Nesbitt (born March 25, 1982, in Mesa, Arizona) is an American paleontologist best known for his work on the origin and early evolutionary patterns of archosaurs. He is currently an associate professor at Virginia Tech in the Department of ...

, a palaeontologist at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

in Seattle and his colleagues, and Charig was posthumously included as co-author.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parrington, Francis Rex 1905 births 1981 deaths 20th-century British zoologists British anatomists British palaeontologists Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of the University of Cambridge People educated at Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby People from Bromborough People educated at Liverpool College