William Edward "Bill" Schevill (July 2, 1906 – July 25, 1994)
was an American paleontologist famous for his part in dynamiting out the nodules of the most complete skeleton of the short-necked
pliosaur
Pliosauroidea is an extinct clade of plesiosaurs, known from the earliest Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. They are best known for the subclade Thalassophonea, which contained crocodile-like short-necked forms with large heads and massive tooth ...
''
Kronosaurus queenslandicus
''Kronosaurus'' ( ; meaning "lizard of Kronos") is a potentially dubious genus of extinct short-necked pliosaur. With an estimated length of , it was among the largest pliosaurs, and is named after the leader of the Greek Titans, Kronos. It ...
'' discovered in
Hughenden Hughenden may refer to:
*Hughenden, Queensland, a town in Australia
*Hughenden, Alberta, a village in central Alberta, Canada
*Hughenden Valley
Hughenden Valley (formerly called Hughenden or Hitchendon) is an extensive village and civil parish in ...
in Queensland, Australia, in 1932. He later became known as an authority on the sounds of whales. Schevill had the title of scientist emeritus at the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering.
Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...
, where he had begun working in 1943, technically retiring in 1985.
Early Education
Born July 2, 1906 in Brooklyn, New York, William E. Schevill grew up in Manhattan, New York, and St Louis, Missouri.
Prior to going to college he spent nearly a year in
Silver City, New Mexico
Silver City is a town in Grant County, New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat and the home of Western New Mexico University. As of the 2010 census the population was 10,315. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,704.
History
...
where, working a ranch, he earned the rank of wrangler.
Graduating from Harvard College in 1927, he saw the rejuvenation of the
Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology
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 ...
(MCZ) as initiated by the new director
Thomas Barbour
Thomas Barbour (August 19, 1884 – January 8, 1946) was an American herpetologist. From 1927 until 1946, he was director of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) founded in 1859 by Louis Agassiz at Harvard University in Cambridge, Ma ...
and, in 1929 Bill Schevill earned an A.M. with and was made the assistant of
Percy Raymond Percy Edward Raymond (30 May 1879 – 17 May 1952) was a Harvard professor and paleontologist who specialized in the evolution of trilobites and studied fossils from the Burgess shales within which a region is named as the Raymond Quarry. He was am ...
, MCZ Professor and Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology. Soon promoted to Associate Curator, Schevill traveled with Professor Raymond on "significant fossil-collecting expeditions to the Burgess Shale, British Columbia (1930) and to Estonia, Norway and Sweden (1934)."
Kronosaurus discovery
In 1931 the (MCZ) sent an expedition to Australia for the dual purpose of procuring specimens - the museum being "weak in Australian animals and...desires
ngto complete its series" - and to engage in "the study of the animals of the region when alive."
The
Harvard Australian Expedition (1931–1932)
The Harvard Australian Expedition of 1931–1932 was a six-man venture sent by then Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) director Thomas Barbour to Australia for the dual purpose of procuring specimens and studying native (living) wildlife i ...
, as it became known, was a six-man venture led by Harvard Professor
William Morton Wheeler
William Morton Wheeler (March 19, 1865 – April 19, 1937) was an American entomologist, myrmecologist and Harvard professor.
Biography Early life and education
William Morton Wheeler was born on March 19, 1865, to parents Julius Morton Wheeler ...
, with the others being
P. Jackson Darlington, Jr. (a renowned coleopterist),
Glover Morrill Allen
Glover Morrill Allen (February 8, 1879 – February 14, 1942) was an American zoology, zoologist.
He was born at Walpole, New Hampshire, the son of Reverend Nathaniel Glover Allen and Harriet Ann (Schouler) Allen, and studied at Harvard University ...
and his student Ralph Nicholson Ellis, medical officer Ira M. Dixon, and William E. Schevill.
[About the Exhibits by Elizabeth Hall and Max Hall (Museum of Comparative Zoology "Agazziz Museum" Harvard University. Third Edition, Copyright 1964, 1975, 1985, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College][ MCZ director ]Thomas Barbour
Thomas Barbour (August 19, 1884 – January 8, 1946) was an American herpetologist. From 1927 until 1946, he was director of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) founded in 1859 by Louis Agassiz at Harvard University in Cambridge, Ma ...
said at the time "We shall hope for specimens' of the kangaroo, the wombat, the Tasmanian devil and Tasmanian wolf," and the mission was a success with over a hundred mammals and thousands of insect specimens returning to the United States. Yet Mr. Schevill, the team's fossil enthusiast, remained in Australia after the others had departed and, in the winter of 1932, was told by the rancher R.W.H. Thomas of rocks with something "odd" poking out of them on his property near Hughenden.[Mather, Patricia, with Agnew, N.H. et al. ''The History of the Queensland Museum, 1862-1986'' Retrieved fro]
archive.org
/ref> The rocks were limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
nodules containing the most complete skeleton of a ''Kronosaurus'' ever discovered.[Meyers, Troy. ''Kronosaurus Chronicles''. Australian Age of Dinosaurs, Issue 3, 2005. Retrieved fro]
australianageofdinosaurs.com
/ref> After dynamiting the nodules out of the ground (and into smaller pieces weighing approximately four tons) with the aid of a British migrant trained in the use of explosives, Scheville had the fossils shipped back to Harvard for examination and preparation. The skull—which matched the holotype jaw fragment of ''K. queenslandicus''—was prepared right away, but time and budget constraints put off restoration of the nearly complete skeleton - most of the bones of which remained unexcavated within the limestone blocks - for 20 years.
Following his return from the expedition, William E. Schevill was made a librarian of the MCZ from 1935 to 1943, "and Barbour noted in 1937 that he had 'a decided taste for bibliography'." Unsurprisingly, Mr. Schevill became a founding member of the ''Society for the Bibliography of Natural History'' in 1936. During this period he earned a master's degree in paleontology from Harvard, and met his future wife, Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
student Barbara Lawrence
Barbara Jo Lawrence (February 24, 1930 – November 13, 2013) was an American model, actress, and real estate agent.
Early years
Born to Morris and Bernice ( Eaton) Lawrence in Carnegie, Oklahoma, Barbara Jo moved with her mother to Kansas C ...
. They married December 23, 1938, and had two children: a daughter named Lee, and a son named Edward.[W. E. Schevill Dies; Authority on Sounds Of Whales Was 88 (New York Times) - https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/27/obituaries/w-e-schevill-dies-authority-on-sounds-of-whales-was-88.html]
Cetology
Becoming an Associate in Physical Oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts in 1943, Bill Schevill's first work regarded US Naval auspices investigating echo-location of U-boats. Indeed, he had been rejected for military service because of chronic iritis, he joined a small group that worked with Allied submariners on observing the temperature of the ocean's upper levels so as to exploit it for stealth when dealing with enemy sonar. As he later wrote in 1962: ''"During World War II many people on both sides listened to underwater sounds for military reasons. Not only the wanted sounds (those made by enemy ships), but a bewildering variety of others were heard. Most of these were ascribed to animals living in the sea, usually as “fish noises” ... Some were ascribed to whales, in part correctly, but without identification of the kind of whale; most military listeners were not biologists, and in any case the traditional naval sonar room is woefully deficient in windows."'' Such maritime work inspired him and, leaving Palaeontology behind, led William E. Schevill become "one of the world's most innovative whale biologists and an undisputed pioneer in the field of whale sounds," performing the first recordings of underwater sounds and extrapolating their purpose from these recordings. In accordance with his groundbreaking work, Schevill published over fifty papers on whale phonation and thus provide the framework for “literally hundreds of scientific studies produced by other workers from the 1960s until the present day." However, it is worthy of note that his wife Barbara Lawrence, by now the MCZ's Curator of Mammals, often co-wrote these documents with him. However, in spite of his change in field, it is reported that Bill Schevill split his time equally between the MCZ and the WHOI - his work with the latter likely relating to Cetology as opposed to fossil studies.
William E. Schevill's study of whales also at one point harked back to the U.S. Naval operations that first set him down this path. As noted upon his death by the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, ''"Bill helped defuse a tense moment between the USA and Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
during the Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. The US military suspected that low frequency blips were being used by the Soviets to locate American submarines, whereas Bill showed these were produced by fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus
''Balaenoptera'' () is a genus of rorquals containing eight extant species. ''Balaenoptera'' comprises all but two of the extant species in its family (the humpback whale and gray whale); the genus is currently polyphyletic, with the two afore ...
) hunting prey."''
William E. Schevill technically retired in 1985, though he continued to work unofficially even after, and died of pneumonia Monday July 25, 1994 at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass, where he lived; survived by his wife, daughter, and son.
Honors
Schevill is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Australian lizard, '' Ctenotus schevilli'', the 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 ...
of which he collected in 1932.[ www.reptile-database.org.]
References
External links
W. E. Schevill Dies; Authority on Sounds Of Whales Was 88
* Obituary Barbara Lawrence Schevill: 1909-1997
Romer Hall of Vertebrate Paleontology
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
Watkins / Schevill Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schevill, William E.
1906 births
1994 deaths
American paleontologists
Cetology
Paleontology in Australia
Harvard University alumni