William Davies, (13 July 1814 – 13 February 1891) was a British

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

Davies was born on 13 July 1814 at Holywell, Flintshire. His father was Thomas Davies and his mother was Elizabeth Turner. He studied botany and in 1843 began work at the Geology Department of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, first also in the field of

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

, later specialising in

vertebrate palaeontology Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossilized remains, the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct animals with vertebrae or a notochord. It also tries to connect, by u ...

. On 1 April 1846 he joint the Survey as a Fossil Collector. Davies assisted Sir

Antonio Brady Sir Antonio Brady (10 November 1811 – 12 December 1881) was an English naturalist, social reformer and British Admiralty official. Brady was born at Deptford on 10 November 1811, being the eldest son of Anthony Brady of the Deptford victualli ...

in his work on collecting

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

mammal fossils, and Brady acknowledged his debt to Davies in ''Catalogue of Pleistocene Mammalia from Ilford, Essex'' (1874). Excavating a large mammoth skull, Davies used the innovation of surrounding the fossil, in the field, with plaster of Paris, reinforced by iron bars. In 1874 he salvaged the '' Dacentrurus''

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

.Peter Whybrow (1985) "A History of Fossil Collecting and Preparation Techniques", '' Curator: The Museum Journal'' Volume 28, Issue 1, pages 5–26 Davies was awarded the inaugural

Murchison Medal The Murchison Medal is an academic award established by Roderick Murchison, who died in 1871. First awarded in 1873, it is normally given to people who have made a significant contribution to geology by means of a substantial body of research and ...

from the Geological Society of London in 1873, and was made a fellow (FGS) in 1877. In 1875, he was made an Assistant, responsible for the entire fossil collection of the museum, and in 1880 was promoted Assistant First Class. In 1880, Davies supervised the transfer of the museum's collections to new buildings in the Natural History Museum. Davies was very active in the collecting and mounting of fish fossils. He trained the fish expert Arthur Smith Woodward. Davies during his life published fifteen scientific papers. The dinosaur '' Thecospondylus daviesi'' was named after him. Davies retired in 1887, and died at his home at Labdens, Colliers End,

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

, on 13 February 1891. Even after his retirement he remained active in the field and proofread many palaeontological publications. It was said of William Davies that: "his extensive knowledge was ever at the service of others, for he was one of those men who cared more for the advancement of science than of himself."

Family

Davises married twice, and had two children (a son and daughter) by his first wife. His son, Thomas Davies (1837–1892), became a mineralogist, editor of the ''Mineralogical Magazine'', and like his father worked at the British Museum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, William 1814 births 1891 deaths British palaeontologists Employees of the Natural History Museum, London Fellows of the Geological Society of London