Addison Emery Verrill
Addison Emery Verrill ( born February 9, 1839 in Greenwood, † December 10, 1926 in Santa Barbara ) was an American zoologist and geologist.
Life and work
Addison Emery Verrill was born as the second son of George Washington and his wife Lucy Verrill Verrill, nee Hill Born in Greenwood. Even before his thirteenth birthday he collected in his hometown and around rocks and minerals, and got to know the distinguishing features. At the age of fourteen years; meanwhile, the family moved to Norway; he devoted himself to the native flora and put it on a herbarium. Until he was seventeen his collection included a wide selection of shells, insects, reptiles, birds, mammals, plants and minerals.
As of May 1859, he studied under Louis Agassiz at Harvard University. He graduated 1862. At the age of 25, he was appointed the first Professor of Zoology at Yale University and taught there from 1864 until his retirement in 1907. From 1868 to 1870 he was professor of comparative anatomy and entomology at of the University of Wisconsin. In addition to his teaching, he was from 1864 to 1874 curator at the Boston Society of Natural Sciences, and from 1865 to 1910 at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. From 1869 to 1920 he was editor of the American Journal of Science.
During his studies he examined in 1860 together with Alpheus Hyatt and Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, the invertebrate fauna of the Atlantic coast, with particular reference to corals, annelids, echinoderms and shells. Later he devoted himself to the invertebrate fauna.
Verrill published more than 350 papers and monographs and more than 1,000 species described scientifically. Along with Sidney Irving Smith, he contributed significantly to the enrichment of the collections of the Zoological Museum of Natural History Peabody, which are now among the most important natural history collections in the United States. Even after his retirement, he continued his scientific work.
He was a member of many learned societies, including the National Academy of Sciences and as Chairman of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For outstanding achievements in the natural sciences, the Addison Emery Verrill Medal is awarded since 1959 Addison Emery Verrill in honor of Yale 's Peabody Museum.
The American archaeologist, discoverer, inventor, artist and author Alpheus Hyatt Verrill was the son of Addison Emery Verrill.
Publications
A selection of his works:
- Report upon the Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard Sound and Adjacent Water ( 1873)
- Zoology of the Bermuda Islands ( 1903)
- Geology and Paleontology of the Bermudas (1907 )
- Coral reefs of the Bermudas (1907 )
- Monograph of the Shallow Water Stars of the North Pacific Coast ( 1914)
- Report on West Indian Stars (1915 )
- Crustacea of Bermuda ( three volumes, 1923)