John Treadwell Nichols (June 11, 1883 – November 10, 1958) was an American
ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...
and
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
.
Life and career
Nichols was born in
Jamaica Plain, Boston
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commu ...
,
, the son of Mary Blake (Slocum) and John White Treadwell Nichols. In 1906 he studied vertebrate zoology at Harvard College, where he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
(AB). In 1907 he joined the American Museum of Natural History as assistant in the department of mammalogy. In 1913 he founded ''
Copeia
''Ichthyology & Herpetology'' (formerly ''Copeia'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in ichthyology and herpetology that was originally named after Edward Drinker Cope, a prominent American researcher in these fiel ...
'', the official journal of the
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) is an international learned society devoted to the scientific studies of ichthyology (study of fish) and herpetology (study of reptiles and amphibians). The primary emphases of the ...
. In 1916 he described the long lost
Bermuda petrel
The Bermuda petrel (''Pterodroma cahow'') is a gadfly petrel. Commonly known in Bermuda as the cahow, a name derived from its eerie cries, this nocturnal ground-nesting seabird is the national bird of Bermuda and can be found pictured on Bermudi ...
together with
Louis Leon Arthur Mowbray who first sighted this bird within a flock of other petrels in 1906 on Castle Island, Bermuda 45 years before it was officially rediscovered by Mowbray's son Louis. He also described the fish
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
''
Bajacalifornia
''Bajacalifornia'' is a genus of slickheads. It was described in 1925 by Charles Haskins Townsend and John Treadwell Nichols on the basis of ''Bajacalifornia burragei''Deep sea fishes of the ''Albatross'' Lower California Expedition. Bulletin o ...
''. He also worked with a team of scientists from the American Museum of Natural History during the
Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916. From 1913 to 1952 he was first assistant curator, then associate curator in charge, and finally curator in the Department of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History.
Nichols wrote 1,000 articles and several books (mostly about fish but also about birds), and he made many expeditions around the world.
He was married to Cornelia DuBois Floyd (October 24, 1882 – December 1977), granddaughter of U.S. Representative from New York
John G. Floyd.
Nichols died in
Garden City, New York
Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census.
The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...
. His grandchildren are novelist
John Nichols and politician
William Weld
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
.
Eponyms
Nichols is honored in the
scientific names
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
of two
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 reptiles: ''
Dipsas nicholsi'' and ''
Sphaerodactylus nicholsi
''Sphaerodactylus nicholsi'', also known commonly as Nichols least gecko, Nichol's dwarf sphaero or the Puerto Rican crescent sphaero, is a species of lizard in the family Sphaerodactylidae . The species is endemic to Puerto Rico.
Etymology
The ...
''.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011), ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. iii + 296 pp. . ("Nichols", p. 190).] and the
generic name of a genus of
parrotfish
Parrotfishes are a group of about 90 fish species regarded as a Family (biology), family (Scaridae), or a subfamily (Scarinae) of the wrasses. With about 95 species, this group's largest species richness is in the Indo-Pacific. They are found ...
es, ''
Nicholsina
Nicholsina is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes, parrotfishes from the family Scaridae. They are found in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. The generic name honours the American ichthyologist John Treadwell Nichols (1883-1958) who was c ...
''.
Additionally the fish ''
Gobiobotia nicholsi
''Gobiobotia nicholsi'' is a species of small freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is endemic to China.
Named in honor of John Treadwell Nichols
John Treadwell Nichols (June 11, 1883 – November 10, 1958) was an American ichthyolog ...
''
Bănărescu & Nalbant, 1966 was named for him.
The fish ''
Romanogobio johntreadwelli
''Romanogobio johntreadwelli'' is a species of cyprinid fish endemic to China.
Named in honor of John Treadwell Nichols
John Treadwell Nichols (June 11, 1883 – November 10, 1958) was an American ichthyologist and ornithologist.
Life and ...
'' was also named after him.
The Fish ''
Gnathopogon nicholsi
''Gnathopogon nicholsi'' is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus ''Gnathopogon'' endemic to the Yangtze River basin in China.
Named in honor of John Treadwell Nichols
John Treadwell Nichols (June 11, 1883 – November 10, 1958) was an Am ...
''
( P. W. Fang, 1943) was also named after him.
Selected works
*''Fishes in the Vicinity of New York City'' (1918)
''The Freshwater Fishes of China''(1943)
*''Field book of Fresh-water Fishes of North America North of Mexico''
*''Marine Fishes of New York and Southern New England''
*''Fishes and Shells of the Pacific World'' (1945)
*''Representative North American Fresh-water Fishes'' (1942)
See also
*
:Taxa named by John Treadwell Nichols
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, John Treadwell
American ornithologists
American ichthyologists
People associated with the American Museum of Natural History
1958 deaths
1883 births
Harvard College alumni
People from Jamaica Plain
20th-century British zoologists