Percy Milton Butler (19 July 1912 – 7 February 2015) was a British zoologist and palaeontologist. He proposed that dental characters are expressed in morphogenetic gradients along the

dentition Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiolo ...

, which could therefore be used to study evolution. This became known as Butler's Field Theory. He was Professor of Zoology at

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

, where he was the Head of the Department of Zoology from 1956 to 1972, and where he established the first course on mammalogy in the UK.

Early life

He was born on 19 July 1912 in Lewisham, London, son of a civil servant, Herbert Butler, and his wife Amy. As a child he was already interested in natural history. He graduated and did his PhD under supervision of Clive Forster-Cooper at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

Career

After receiving his undergraduate degree in 1933 Butler received Commonwealth Fund Fellowship to visit Columbia University in 1936. He studied fossil mammal teeth in various museum collections and was associated with William King Gregory at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. He also collected fossil mammals, including a molar of Megacerops. His study of fossil teeth brought him to consider the mechanics of teeth, which led to his field theory, published in 1939. After appointments at Exeter and Manchester University, he joined

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

in 1956. He retired at 60, and as an emeritus professor turned to full-time research, much of it done at the Natural History Museum, London. Butler was an internationally recognised expert in the origins of early mammals from the Mesozoic. He later got interested in tertiary mammals from East-Africa and the fauna of the

Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropology, paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human ev ...

, on which he worked with

Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

. In his 80s he still worked on the early mammalian clade

Haramiyida Haramiyida ("thief" from Arabic الحرامية (al ḥarāmiyah), "thief, bandit") is a possibly polyphyletic order of mammaliaform cynodonts or mammals of controversial taxonomic affinites. Their teeth, which are by far the most common remains ...

Awards and recognition

Butler was awarded the American Geological Association’s Gold Medal. In 1986 he received the silver medal of the city of Paris. In 1994 received and honorary membership of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and in 1996 received the society's prestigious

Romer-Simpson Medal The Romer-Simpson Medal is the highest award issued by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for "sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence and service to the discipline of vertebrate paleontology". The award is named in honor of Alfred S. Ro ...

Personal life

Butler married Lillan Temple in 1941. He was a talented artist. His drawings feature in many of his publications and

held an exhibition of his watercolours.

References

External links

Tribute to Percy Milton Butler 1912–2015, J. Hooker (2017) Historical Biology, 30:1-2, 2-6DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2017.1338518
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Percy British palaeontologists 1912 births Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London 2015 deaths 20th-century British zoologists People from Lewisham Scientists from London British centenarians Men centenarians