Lancelot Alexander Borradaile (1872 – 20 October 1945) was an English zoologist, noted for his work on

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s and his books ''The Invertebrata'' and ''Manual of Elementary Zoology''.

Legacy

Borradaile may be best known for his undergraduate textbook titled ''Manual of Elementary Zoology'', and for ''The Invertebrata: a manual for the use of students'', co-written with F. A. Potts. As well as these generalist works, Borradaile also worked as a

carcinologist A carcinologist is a scientist who studies crustaceans or is otherwise involved in carcinology Carcinology is a branch of zoology that consists of the study of crustaceans, a group of arthropods that includes lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, ...

. He published an important monograph ''On the Pontoniinae'' in 1917, based on material collected by the 1905

Percy Sladen Trust The Percy Sladen Memorial Trust is a trust fund administered by the Linnean Society of London for the support of scientific research. It was endowed by Constance Sladen, who was married to the marine biologist Percy Sladen (1849–1900), in his mem ...

Expedition to the Indian Ocean, led by

John Stanley Gardiner John Stanley Gardiner (1872–1946) was a British zoologist. Biography Stanley, as he was known, was the younger son of John Jephson Gardiner and Sarah McTier. He was born in Jordanstown (Belfast) in 1872 – two years after his brother Arthur. ...

. He worked extensively on

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

s and similar animals, and coined the term "

carcinisation Carcinisation (or carcinization) is an example of convergent evolution in which a crustacean evolves into a crab-like form from a non-crab-like form. The term was introduced into evolutionary biology by L. A. Borradaile, who describe ...

" to describe "one of the many attempts of

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

to evolve a crab".PDF
/ref> He is commemorated in the scientific names '' Metapenaeopsis borradaili'', '' Athanas borradailei'', '' Corallianassa borradailei'', '' Accalathura borradailei'' and '' Petrolisthes borradailei''.

Biography

He was born on 26 September 1872 to a "merchant in the African trade". He studied at Selwyn College,

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, on the

natural sciences tripos The Natural Sciences Tripos (NST) is the framework within which most of the science at the University of Cambridge is taught. The tripos includes a wide range of Natural Sciences from physics, astronomy, and geoscience, to chemistry and biology, ...

. He graduated with a

first-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

B.A. in 1893; the

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

followed in 1897. In 1895, he began demonstrating in zoology at Cambridge, and also starting investigating variation in

s, under

William Bateson William Bateson (8 August 1861 – 8 February 1926) was an English biologist who was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity, and the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscove ...

. In 1899, he accompanied

on an expedition to Ceylon (

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

) and Minikoi (

Minicoy Minicoy, locally known as Maliku (), is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Along with Viringili, it is on ''Maliku atoll'', the southernmost atoll of Lakshadweep archipelago. Administratively, it is a census town in the Indian union territory of ...

), where he studied various aspects of crustacean biology, especially the

terrestrial crab A number of lineages of crabs have evolved to live predominantly on land. Examples of terrestrial crabs are found in the families Gecarcinidae and Gecarcinucidae, as well as in selected genera from other families, such as ''Sesarma'', althoug ...

s. For his further work on crabs and

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

, he was awarded the

higher doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

Sc.D. 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 ...

in 1922. Borradaile became university lecturer in zoology in 1910, later dean of Selwyn College and eventually tutor at that college. He was and on the livery of the

Drapers' Company The Worshipful Company of Drapers is one of the 110 livery companies of the City of London. It has the formal name The Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Mary the Virgin of the Mystery of Dr ...

and so a

freeman of the City of London The Freedom of the City of London started around 1237 as the status of a 'free man' or 'citizen', protected by the charter of the City of London and not under the jurisdiction of a feudal lord. In the Middle Ages, this developed into a freedom or ...

. He retired in 1937 and died on 20 October 1945.

References

External links

Works by L. A. Borradaile
at the

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as worldwide consortiumof natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working toge ...

Photograph of L. A. Borradaile in 1926
in the National Portrait Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Borradaile, Lancelot Alexander 1872 births 1945 deaths Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge British carcinologists English zoologists