Shane A. Parker
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Shane Alwyne Parker (3 August 1943 – 21 November 1992) was a British-born museum curator 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 ...
, who emigrated to
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
in 1967 after participating in the second Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expedition in 1964. He worked as a curator at the South Australian Museum 1976–1992. He died of lymphoma at his home in Adelaide after a two-year illness. Parker described
Cox's sandpiper Cox's sandpiper (''Calidris'' × ''paramelanotos'') is a hybrid between a male pectoral sandpiper (''Calidris melanotos'') and a female curlew sandpiper (''Calidris ferruginea''). First discovered in Australia in the 1950s, it was originally descr ...
as a species new to science in 1982; this wader was later revealed to be a
hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...
. He also named the extinct Kangaroo Island emu (''Dromaius baudinianus'') in 1984 on the basis of
subfossil 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 in ...
bones. He was the senior author of the first two parts (all that were published) of the ''Annotated Checklist of the Birds of South Australia'', ''Part 1: Emus to Spoonbills'' (1979), and ''Part 2A: Waterfowl'' (1985).


References

* Joseph, Leo. (1993). Obituary. Shane A. Parker 1943–1992. ''Emu'' 93: 297–298. * Robin, Libby. (2001). ''The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001''. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. 1943 births 1992 deaths Australian ornithologists Australian curators 20th-century Australian zoologists {{Australia-ornithologist-stub