Hampton Wildman Parker (5 July 1897 – 2 September 1968) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
.
Parker was
Keeper of Zoology
The Keeper of Zoology was a zoological academic position within the Natural History Museum in London, England. The Keeper of Zoology acted as the head of the Department of Zoology. The following is a list of those who have held this position, whic ...
at the
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
from 1947 to 1957. He is the author of several works on
snake
Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...
s and
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
s:
Parker discovered a new
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 ...
of lizard on the
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...
, which he described and named
Vesey-Fitzgerald's burrowing skink (''Janetaescincus veseyfitzgeraldi'' ) after
entomologist
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
Leslie Desmond Foster Vesey-Fitzgerald.
__NOTOC__
Books by H.W. Parker
*1934. ''A Monograph of the Frogs of the Family Microhylidae''. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History).
*1963. ''Snakes''. London: Hale.
*1965. ''Natural History of Snakes''. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History).
*1977. ''Snakes, a Natural History''. University of Queensland Press.
Eponyms
Parker is honored in the
specific names of the following
reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...
s: ''
Cercosaura parkeri'', ''
Chamaelycus parkeri'', ''
Emoia parkeri'', ''
Myriopholis parkeri'', ''
Phelsuma parkeri
''Phelsuma parkeri'', commonly known as Parker's day gecko or the Pemba Island day gecko, is a diurnal species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to Pemba Island, Tanzania, and typically inhabits banana trees and dwelli ...
'', ''
Prasinohaema parkeri'', ''
Sphaerodactylus parkeri'', ''
Tropidophis parkeri'', and ''Zonurus parkeri'' (a synonym of ''
Cordylus tropidosternum
The East African armadillo lizard, dwarf sungazer, or tropical girdled lizard (''Cordylus tropidosternum'') is a species of arboreal or rupicolous (rock-dwelling) lizard endemic to East Africa.
Habitat
The preferred habitat of the East African ...
'').
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Parker, H.W.", p. 200).]
References
External links
*
20th-century British botanists
Employees of the Natural History Museum, London
1897 births
1968 deaths
{{UK-zoologist-stub