Chester Arthur Arnold was an American

paleobotanist Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

, born June 25, 1901 in

Leeton, Missouri Leeton is a city in southeast Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 566 at the 2010 census. History Leeton was platted in 1895, and named after J. J. Lee, the original owner of the town site. A post office called Leeton ha ...

and died on 19 November 1977.

Family, education and career

He was the son of farmers Elmer and Edith Arnold. Arnolds family moved to Ludlowville, New York and he attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

with the intent to study

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

. Interaction with Loren Petry, a Cornell professor studying Devonian plants of the region, lead to Arnold shifting his focus to paleobotany. He received his Bachelor of Science in 1924, his Ph.D. in 1929 with his

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

on Devonian megafloral paleobotany. He started working at the Faculty of Botany,

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1928 and became curator of the collection of fossil plants in 1929. Arnold became a professor in 1947. He maintained close relations with researchers in India, being a friend of

Birbal Sahni Birbal Sahni FRS (14 November 1891 – 10 April 1949) was an Indian paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. He also took an interest in geology and archaeology. He founded what is now the Birbal Sahni Institute of Pa ...

, of the

Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany The Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (formerly, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany; BSIP) is an autonomous institute constituted under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The institute is located at Luckno ...

and served his year in residence from 1958 to 1959 at the institute. Arnold was a member of many learned societies and was the author of the ''Introduction to Paleobotany'' published in 1947.

Research

Arnold did extensive research on the flora Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Tertiary of North America studying fossils from

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

to Oklahoma to

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

. During his lifetime Arnold wrote approximately 121 publications, on subjects including the fossil conifers of

Princeton, British Columbia Princeton (originally Vermilion Forks) is a town in the Similkameen region of southern British Columbia, Canada."The rich history of Princeton or how Vermilion Forks made it on the map...", Princeton 2008 Visitors Guide, p. 4. It lies just east o ...

to the extinct water-fern, '' Azolla primaeva''. He was honored with the ''Silver Medal'' from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in 1972, and the ''Distinguished Service Award'' from the Paleobotanical Section of the Botanical Society of America. A number of fossil plants have been named in Arnold's honor including '' Koelruteria arnoldi'' and '' Pseudolarix arnoldi''.

Correspondence

Arnold interacted with a number of eminent profession and amateur paleobotanists across the western US. While collecting fossils with Alonzo W. Hancock in the Clarno Formation of Oregon in 1941, Arnold and Hancock recovered the most complete '' Miomastodon'' skull known to date.The Oregon History Project Alonzo Hancock entry
/ref> In 1952 Arnold was the supervisor for Herman F. Becker who extensively studied the Ruby Basin Flora of Montana. Among the may correspondents of Arnold was Wesley C. Wehr, who became Affiliate curator of Paleobotany at the

Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Burke Museum) is a natural history museum in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Established in 1899 as the Washington State Museum, it traces its origins to a high school naturalist club fo ...

in Seattle.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Chester Arthur 1901 births 1977 deaths 20th-century American botanists American paleontologists Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni Heads of universities and colleges in the United States University of Michigan faculty People from Johnson County, Missouri 20th-century American academics