Frank Morton Carpenter (September 6, 1902 – January 18, 1994) was an American entomologist and

paleontologist 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 ...

. He received his PhD from

Harvard University 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 high ...

, and was curator of

fossil 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 ...

insects at the

Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan cler ...

for 60 years. He studied the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

fossil insects of

Elmo, Kansas Elmo is an unincorporated community in Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. Elmo is located south of Abilene at the northwest corner of K-15 and K-4. History Early history For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inh ...

, and compared the North American fossil insect fauna with

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

known from elsewhere in the world. A careful and methodical worker, he used venation and mouthparts to determine the relationships of fossil taxa, and was author of the ''

Treatise A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions." Tre ...

'' volume on Insects. He reduced the number of extinct insect orders then described from about fifty to nine. Entomologists David Grimaldi and Michael S. Engel consider him "the most influential paleoentomologist of his generation" (Grimaldi and Engel 2005 p. 143). He has been memorialized frequently with patronyms, including the hanging fly '' Bittacus carpenteri'' Cheng, 1957, the fossil

parasitic wasp Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causi ...

''Carpenteriana tumida'' Yoshimoto, 1975, the fossil

snakefly Snakeflies are a group of predatory insects comprising the order Raphidioptera with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distribution than it does now; s ...

Fibla carpenteri ''Fibla carpenteri'' is an extinct species of snakefly in the Inocelliidae genus '' Fibla''. ''F. carpenteri'' is named in honor of the paleoentomologist Dr Frank Carpenter, for his vast knowledge and interest in Raphidioptera. The species is ...

'' Engel, 1995, the fossil

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...

''Protrechina carpenteri'' Wilson, 1985, and the

caddisfly The caddisflies, or order Trichoptera, are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the ...

''Rhyacophila carpenteri'' Milne, 1936. He also taught at the

Harvard Extension School Harvard Extension School (HES) is the extension school of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school is one among 12 schools that grant degrees and falls under the Division of Continuing Education in the Harvard Faculty of Art ...

. Carpenter was elected in 1938 a fellow of the Entomological Society of America.

Cited works

References

* Carpenter, F. M., 1992. Superclass Hexapoda. Volume 3 of Part R, Arthropoda 4; ''

Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology The ''Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology'' (or ''TIP'') published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, is a definitive multi-authored work of some 50 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and co ...

'', Boulder, Colorado,

Geological Society of America The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. History The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitch ...

. *

External links

The Permian Insect Fossils of Elmo, Kansas
by Roy J. Beckemeyer 1902 births 1994 deaths American entomologists American paleontologists Harvard University alumni Harvard University staff 20th-century American zoologists Harvard Extension School faculty Fellows of the Entomological Society of America {{paleontologist-stub

See also

Cited works

References

External links