Paulus Edward Pieris Deraniyagala (1900–1976) was a Sri Lankan

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 ...

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 ...

, and artist.

Early life and education

He was born in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

, the son of

Paul Edward Pieris Sir Paul Edward Pieris Deraniyagala Samarasinha Sriwardhana, (February 16, 1874 – 1959) (''commonly known as'' Sir Paul E. Pieris) was a Ceylonese civil servant and historian. He served as Ceylon's Trade Commissioner and a District Judge and ...

and Lady Hilda Obeyesekere Pieris. He had two younger brothers,

Justin Pieris Deraniyagala Justin Pieris Deraniyagala (20 July 1903 – 24 May 1967) was a Sri Lankan painter. Deraniyagala was a founder member of the Colombo '43 Group of Sri Lankan artists and along with Lionel Wendt, George Keyt and Harold Peiris. Born on 20 July 19 ...

Ralph St. Louis Pieris Deraniyagala Ralph St. Louis Pieris Deraniyagala, was Ceylonese lawyer and civil servant. He was the former Clerk to the House of Representatives (1947–1964) and Clerk of the State Council. Born to Sir Paul Edward Pieris, civil servant and scholar, ...

, and a sister, Miriam Pieris Deraniyagala. He was educated at

S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia , motto_translation = Be Thou Forever , song = Thomian Song , athletics = Yes , sports = Yes , nickname = Thora , denomination = Anglican , patron ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he gained a BA in 1922 and an

Oxbridge MA In the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, Bachelors of Arts are promoted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts (MA) on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university (including years as an un ...

in 1923. He entered

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

for a year, where he was awarded a

Master of Arts 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 ...

in 1924.

Career

He specialised in fauna and human fossils of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

. From 1939 to 1963, he was the director of the National Museum of Ceylon, and from 1961 to 1964, he was also the dean of the Faculty of Arts at the

Vidyodaya University Vidyodaya School is a private college-preparatory combined-grades school located in Thevakkal, Kochi, India. It provides comprehensive school education from lower primary to grade 12. About Established in 1990-91 the school conducts classes fr ...

. He described several

fossil 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 ...

s and proposed

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 ...

for

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 ...

and

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

, with several now identified as

dubious Doubt is a mental state in which the mind remains suspended between two or more contradictory propositions, unable to be certain of any of them. Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief. It may involve uncertainty ...

, including: *Sri Lankan

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

(''Rhinoceros sinhaleyus'') in 1936 for a fossil found in

Ratnapura District Ratnapura ( Sinhala: රත්නපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය, Tamil: இரத்தினபுரம் மாவட்டம்) is a district of Sri Lanka in the Sabaragamuwa Province. The gem-mining centre of Sri L ...

*Sri Lankan

hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...

(''Hexaprotodon sinhaleyus'') in 1937 *

Sri Lanka lion The Sri Lankan lion (''Panthera leo sinhaleyus''), also known as the Ceylonese lion, is an extinct prehistoric subspecies of lion, excavated in Sri Lanka. It is believed to have become extinct prior to the arrival of culturally modern humans, . ...

(''Leo leo sinhaleyus'') in 1939 for two fossil teeth found at

Kuruwita Kuruwita is a town in the Ratnapura District of Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. It is 87 km from Colombo. It used to be served by the narrow gauge Sabaragamuwa Railway, a branch of the national railway system. And known for the nearb ...

- the information about the teeth is not sufficient to determine whether it differs from other subspecies. *''Panthera tigris sudanensis'' was named in 1951 for a

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on u ...

skin that he saw in a

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

bazaar. When he asked the shop owner for the origin of this specimen, he was told that the animal was shot in

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

Vratislav Mazák Vratislav Mazák (; 22 June 1937 – 9 September 1987) was a Czech biologist who specialized in paleoanthropology, mammalogy and taxonomy. He was also a painter, often illustrating his books about animals and men. Born at Kutná Hora, he was a p ...

thought it likely that the skin was smuggled from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

to Egypt and commented "the situation is half-humorous, half-ironic". *

Javan elephant The Javan elephant (''Elephas maximus sondaicus'') was proposed by Paules Edward Pieris Deraniyagala in 1953, based on an illustration of a carving on the Buddhist monument of Borobudur in Java. He thought that the Asian elephant (''Elephas maxim ...

(''Elephas maximus sondaicus'') was described in 1955 based on an illustration of a carving on the Buddhist monument of

Borobudur Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur ( id, Candi Borobudur, jv, ꦕꦤ꧀ꦝꦶꦧꦫꦧꦸꦝꦸꦂ, Candhi Barabudhur) is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, not far from the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indone ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. It is considered

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

with the

Indian elephant The Indian elephant (''Elephas maximus indicus'') is one of four extant recognised subspecies of the Asian elephant and native to mainland Asia. Since 1986, the Asian elephant has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List as the wild po ...

(''E. m. indicus''). *

Balangoda Man Balangoda Man refers to hominins from Sri Lanka's late Quaternary period. The term was initially coined to refer to anatomically modern ''Homo sapiens'' from sites near Balangoda that were responsible for the island's Mesolithic 'Balangoda Cult ...

(''Homo sapiens balangodensis'') in 1955 *Sri Lankan rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros kagavena'') in 1956 *Sri Lankan

gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ), also known as the Indian bison, is a bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 m ...

(''Bibos sinhaleyus'') in 1962 During his trips to China, he studied the

Chinese alligator The Chinese alligator (; ), also known as the Yangtze alligator (), China alligator, or historically the muddy dragon, is a crocodilian endemic to China. It and the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') are the only living species in the ...

and published a new

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 ...

name for it. In the scientific field of

herpetology Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

, he described many new species of

lizards Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia althou ...

and

snakes Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joi ...

. He served as president of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1952 to 1955. Deraniyagala is commemorated in the

of three species of Sri Lankan reptiles: '' Aspidura deraniyagalae'', '' Lankascincus deraniyagalae'', and ''

Nessia deraniyagalai ''Nessia deraniyagalai'', commonly known as Deraniyagala's snake skink, Deraniyagala's snakeskink, or Deraniyagala's nessia, is a species of limbless lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to the island of Sri Lanka. Etymology ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Deraniyagala", p. 70).

Family

He was married to Prini Molamure; their son

Siran Upendra Deraniyagala Siran Upendra Deraniyagala (1 March 1942 – 5 October 2021) was a Sri Lankan archaeologist and historian, who served as the Director-General of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology of Sri Lanka from 1992 to 2001. He also served as the ...

is also a famous scientist, specialising in

archeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

References

External links

Genealogy of the Deraniyagala family, including a photo of Dr. Paul E. P. Deraniyagala
1900 births 1976 deaths People from Colombo Academics of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura Alumni of S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Harvard University alumni Sinhalese academics Sri Lankan anthropologists Sinhalese biologists Sinhalese zoologists Ceylonese Knights Bachelor 20th-century anthropologists 20th-century zoologists {{SriLanka-bio-stub Sri Lankan environmentalists

Early life and education

Career

Family

See also

References

External links