Searles Valentine Wood (February 14, 1798 – October 26, 1880) was an English

palaeontologist 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 ...

Life

Wood went to sea in 1811 as a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...

in the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

's service, which he left in 1826. He then settled at

Hasketon Hasketon is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk District of Suffolk, England. Its church, St. Andrews, is one of 38 existing round-tower churches in Suffolk. St. Andrews stands more or less at the centre of its scattered parish, a ...

near

Woodbridge, Suffolk Woodbridge is a port and market town in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is up the River Deben from the sea. It lies north-east of Ipswich and forms part of the wider Ipswich built-up area. The town is c ...

. Wood devoted himself to a study of the

mollusca Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

of the Newer or Upper Tertiary (now

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

) of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

and

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, and the Older Tertiary (

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

) of the

Hampshire Basin The Hampshire Basin is a geological basin of Palaeogene age in southern England, underlying parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, and Sussex. Like the London Basin to the northeast, it is filled with sands and clays of Paleocene and yo ...

. His work in East Anglia focussed on the Crag deposits, "crag" being a local term for shelly sand that has been adopted by geologists. Opportunities for fossil-gathering were then plentiful, as these deposits were quarried to be used for fertiliser. These studies led to his chief work, ''A Monograph of the Crag Mollusca'' (1848–1856), published by the

Palaeontographical Society The Palaeontographical Society is a learned society, established in 1847, and is the oldest extant Society devoted to the advancement of palaeontological knowledge. The Society publishes monographs that further its primary purpose, which is to pro ...

. He was awarded the

Wollaston medal The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London. The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831. It was originally made of gold (1831–1845), t ...

for this work in 1860 by the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. A supplement was issued by him in 1872–1874, a second in 1879, and a third (edited by his son) in 1882. He worked on the older deposits with his friend Frederick Edwards, Edwards describing the univalves and Wood the bivalves. This resulted in the publication of ''A Monograph of the Eocene Bivalves of England'' (1861–1871), also issued by the Palaeontographical Society. He died at

Martlesham Martlesham is a village in Suffolk, England about two miles (3 km) South-West of Woodbridge and East of Ipswich. It is often referred to as "old Martlesham" by locals in order to distinguish this old village from the much more recent Martl ...

, near Woodbridge. His son,

Searles Valentine Wood (1830-1884) Searles Valentine Wood (February 14, 1798 – October 26, 1880) was an English palaeontologist. Life Wood went to sea in 1811 as a midshipman in the British East India Company's service, which he left in 1826. He then settled at Hasketon near Wo ...

, was for some years a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

at Woodbridge, but gave up the profession and devoted his energies to

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

, studying especially the structure of the deposits of the crag and

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

drifts.

References

External links

*
The East Anglian Crags , Neogene Bryozoa of Britain
1798 births 1880 deaths English palaeontologists Wollaston Medal winners People from Suffolk Coastal (district) 19th-century English lawyers {{Palaeontologist-stub