Clinton Hart Merriam

Clinton Hart Merriam ( born December 5, 1855 in New York City; † March 19, 1942 in Berkeley ) was an American zoologist, ornithologist and ethnographer. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Merriam ".

Life and work

Merriam was the son of U.S. Congressman Clinton L. Merriam. He studied from 1874 to 1877 Biology and Anatomy at Yale and completed his doctorate in 1879 at the School of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. From 1879 to 1885 he exercised the profession of a physician in upstate New York.

In 1886 he became the first head of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy in the Department of Agriculture of the United States, forerunner of today's National Wildlife Research Center and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. He held until 1910 this function. In 1888 he was co-founder of the National Geographic Society and developed the concept of life zones around the biomes of North America to be classified. From 1891 to 1892 he was president of the Biological Society of Washington. In 1899 he organized for the railroad magnate Edward Henry Harriman, a journey of exploration along the coast of Alaska. He was in his life, President or Chairman of numerous institutions: 1900-1903 at the American Ornithologists ' Union, 1902, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, from 1917 to 1935 the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, 1919-1921 at the American Society of Mammalogists, 1920-1921 at the Anthropological Society of Washington and from 1924 to 1925 at the American Society of Naturalists.

From 1910 he studied the language and life of the Indian tribes of the West of the United States. Its operations in this research, however, were of little importance.

Merriam published more than 500 scientific works, especially on mammals and birds, and described about 600 new species.

Merriam's grandson, the geographer and ecologist Lee Merriam Talbot ( born 1930 ), 1957 was involved in the rediscovery of the Mesopotamian fallow deer, and 1980-1983 Director General of IUCN.