Herbert Fox Standing (5 July 1857 – 24 December 1943) was an English

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 ...

and Quaker medical

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

in Madagascar. He was the author of the book ''The Children of Madagascar'' (1887) and the Headmaster of the Boys' High School of the Friends' Foreign Mission Association in

Antananarivo Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...

. Standing is responsible for describing four species of subfossil lemur, including '' Archaeoindris fontoynontii'' (1909), '' Mesopropithecus pithecoides'' (1905), '' Palaeopropithecus maximus'' (1903), ''

Megaladapis grandidieri ''Megaladapis'' ("Great ''Adapis''" from Ancient Greek μεγαλος (megalos), "great, big" + Modern Latin ''Adapis'', "'' Adapis''"), informally known as the koala lemur, was a genus belonging to the family Megaladapidae, consisting of thre ...

'' (1903), and other

subfossil 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 in ...

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

that have since become

taxonomic synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Lin ...

Standing's day gecko Standing's day gecko (''Phelsuma standingi'') is an arboreal and diurnal species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to southwest Madagascar; it is threatened by illegal collection for the international pet trade and hab ...

(''Phelsuma standingi)'' is named after him. Standing married Lucy Glynn in 1881. They had seven children.

References

Literature cited

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Standing, Herbert F. 1857 births 1943 deaths People from Crawley Missionary educators Protestant missionaries in Madagascar Quaker missionaries British palaeontologists Christian medical missionaries