Alan J. Charig
Alan Jack Charig ( born July 1, 1927 in London, † July 15, 1997 ) was a British paleontologist.
- 4.1 Notes and references
- 4.2 Literature
Youth and Education
Born in 1927, he attended the Haberdashers ' Aske 's School in Hampstead, later, the Emmanuel College, Cambridge. During his studies he was drafted during World War II in the Royal Armoured Corps, where he learned Russian trained as a tank driver and served in the following years as a translator. Later he made at Cambridge with a degree in natural sciences and worked as an assistant for Rex Parrington. In this position, he hired my first research work.
Professional career
From 1957 to 1961 Charig research assistant at the British Museum of Natural History was in the " Invertebrate Palaeontology " ( invertebrate paleontology ), but was in 1961 appointed fossil amphibians, reptiles and birds in the area to the curator. From 1964 he was there leading a research assistant; He stopped this position until 1987, he retired from professional life. However, he continued his scientific work. Through his work Alan Charig is one of the most important paleontologist of the United Kingdom.
Research
When he took his first post at the British Museum of Natural History, he worked at the Cretaceous mollusks. Later he worked intensively with dinosaurs. He described 1986 together with his colleague Angela Milner the dinosaur Baryonyx, the media attention attracted to himself when discovered. The Fund takes a special role, as it significantly clarified the Paleobiology of Spinosauriden, and provided proof Piscivorie. In 1997, shortly after the death Charigs detailed monograph " Baryonyx walkeri, a fish -eating dinosaur from the Wealden of Surrey " published, which he also co-authored with his colleague Angela Milner.
He participated in numerous paleontological excavations in part, for example in Zambia and Tanzania (1963 ), Lesotho ( 1966-67 ), Queensland (Australia, 1978) and China ( 1982). In 1995, he visited numerous archaeological sites in Argentina.
Media work
Gained fame by Alan Charig also designed by him, ten-part BBC TV series "Before the Ark " (Eng. "Before the Ark " ) about extinct vertebrates ( 1974) with accompanying book. Even more successful was his popular book "A New Look at Dinosaurs " (1979). In the 1980s, he gained greater fame through his advocacy against the claim that the London specimen of Archaeopteryx was a forgery.
Private life
In 1955 he married Marianne Jacoby († 1987), with whom he had three children. Alan Charig died in 1997 of a stroke.