Seth Eugene Meek (April 1, 1859,
Hicksville, Ohio
Hicksville is a village in Defiance County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,581 at the 2010 census. It sits around 2.2 miles east from the Ohio- Indiana border.
History
Led by Henry W. Hicks, the Hicks Land Company platted the comm ...
– July 6, 1914,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
) was an American
ichthyologist at the
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
in Chicago. He was the first compiler of a book on
Mexican freshwater fishes. Together with his assistant,
Samuel F. Hildebrand
Samuel Frederick Hildebrand (August 15, 1883 – March 16, 1949) was an American ichthyologist.
Life and work
Hildebrand was the son of German-born parents who immigrated to the United States in 1864. From 1908 to 1910 he worked as an assis ...
, he produced the first book on the freshwater fishes of
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
.
He often collaborated with
Charles H. Gilbert, and in 1884 on a collecting trip through the
Ozarks
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...
, they discovered a new species, ''
Etheostoma nianguae'', which only lives in the
Osage River
The Osage River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 31, 2011 tributary of the Missouri River in central Missouri in the United States. The eighth-largest river ...
basin.
Also with them on that excursion was
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...
, considered the father of modern ichthyology.
After the Ozarks trip, Meek accepted the post of professor of biology and geology at Arkansas Industrial University (now the
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...
).
Tribute
The
American halfbeak was named in his honor ''Hyporhamphus meeki''.
As is the
Mezquital pupfish
The Mezquital pupfish (''Cyprinodon meeki'') is a species of pupfish in the family Cyprinodontidae. It is endemic to Durango in Mexico. This species was described by Robert Rush Miller in 1976 from a pond which was fed by hot springs within th ...
(''Cyprinodon meeki'').
See also
*
:Taxa named by Seth Eugene Meek
References
Further reading
*
1859 births
1914 deaths
American ichthyologists
People associated with the Field Museum of Natural History
People from Hicksville, Ohio
University of Arkansas faculty
{{US-zoologist-stub