Arthur Smith Woodward

Arthur Smith Woodward (* May 23, 1864 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England; † September 2, 1944 in Haywards Heath, London ) was a British paleontologist.

Life and work

Woodward spent his childhood and school years in Macclesfield. Then he moved to Manchester and studied at the Owens College.

1882, at age 18, he began working for the British Museum. About ten years later, he was Assistant Keeper of Geology. In 1901 he was the manager ( " keeper" ) of the paleontological department of the British Museum; he held until 1924 this position. In 1904 he became President of the Geological Society of London. During his tenure at the British Museum Woodward research at extinct vertebrates, especially fish. He undertook research trips among other things, to South America and Greece.

The discovery of the so-called Piltdown Man, which was brought to him by Charles Dawson, founded on the one hand Woodward's fame during his lifetime, put him on the other hand, however, after his death into disrepute. After the discovery brought to him and he had the locality as well as the skull bones studied extensively, he presented the Fund on 18 December 1912 a meeting of the Geological Society of London. The Piltdown Man was dated to a ripe old age of 100,000 years and more hyped up for the "missing link " of human evolutionary history, which Woodward became world-famous. The Fund became apparent in 1953, after Woodward's death, as a brazen forgery out. Although the forgery course until today could not be accurately reconstructed, Woodward is one of the main suspects.

Honors

In 1901 he was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society, which honored him in 1917 with the Royal Medal. In 1914 he was awarded the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales. In 1924 he was knighted. He was also a member of the Geological Society of London, 1896, the Lyell Medal, and in 1924 the Wollaston medal awarded him. He was also a member of the Linnean Society of London, from 1940 he was awarded the Linnean Medal. In 1925 he became a member of the Leopoldina, 1926 corresponding member of the Paleontological Society.

Swell

• Kurzbiografischer entry at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010, accessed on 21 January 2014.
• Entry in the Britannica, 15th Edition, 1998. (English )