Gilbert Percy Whitley

Gilbert Percy Whitley ( born June 9, 1903 in Swaythling in Southampton in England, † 18 July 1975 in Sydney, Australia ) was a pioneer of Australian marine biologist and worked nearly 40 years as Curator of Ichthyology at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

Life and work

With his parents and two sisters Whitley emigrated to Sydney in 1921. There he worked among others at the Australian Museum with McCulloch and studied at Sydney Technical College and at the University of Sydney zoology. After the death of McCulloch in October 1925 he joined his footsteps and took the place of ichthyologists and later the curator of ichthyology.

In 1923 he published his first scientific article 'The Praying Mantis '. In total, he wrote over the course of his life more than 550 articles and five books mainly over the fish of Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the South Pacific. He described over 320 new genera and species of fish and examined many aspects of Australian marine and freshwater fish including ecology, fisheries and taxonomy.

During his time as a curator, he introduced - usually at their own expense - collecting trips with his friends Tom Iredale and Anthony Musgrave by. This also makes the number of registered and identified species doubled in the museum's collection to about 37,000.

Whitley was a member and President of the Royal Zoological Society and several other organizations in New South Wales.

He went in 1964 to retire, but continued his scientific work. Yet he was also interested otherwise: he played piano, often went to concerts, to the theater or art exhibitions.

Works (selection)

  • Allen GR, Hoese DF, Paxton JR, Randall JE, Russell BC, Talbot FH, Whitley GP ( 1976) Annotated checklist of the fishes of Lord Howe Iceland. Rec Aust. Mus. 30, 365-454.
  • Anon (1976 ) Obituary: Gilbert Percy Whitley Australian Zoologist 19, 111-112.
  • Murray M, Roach J (2002) Whitley, Gilbert Percy ( 1903-1975 ), ichthyologist and author. In ' Australian Dictionary of Biography '. ( Eds J Ritchie and D Langmore ) pp. 542-543. (Melbourne University Press: Melbourne)
  • Paxton JR, Hoese DF ( 1975) Gilbert, P. Whitley from 1903 to 1975. Copeia 4, 792-793.
  • Paxton, J. R. & D. F. Hoese. 1975th Gilbert P. Whitley, obituary. Copeia, 4: 792-793.
  • Paxton, J. R. & M. A. McGrouther. 1997th A history of the fish collection at the Australian Museum ( 1860-1968 ), with a summary of current Australian fish collections. In T. W. Pietsch & W. Anderson ( eds ), Collection Building in Ichthyology and Herpetology. Special Publication American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, 3: 183-205.
  • Smith, CH Whitley, Gilbert Percy (England -Australia from 1903 to 1975 ), Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono- Biographical Sketches,
  • Pollard J (Ed.) (1980), " G.P. Whitley 's Handbook of Australian Fishes. ' ( Jack Pollard: Sydney )
  • Whitley GP ( 1935) Australian shark tragedies The Victorian Naturalist 14, 195-206.
  • Whitley GP ( 1951) Shark attacks in Western Australia. Western Australian Naturalist 2
  • Whitley GP ( 1952) Flatheads. Australian Museum Magazine 10, 244-248.
  • Whitley GP ( 1962) The first hundred years. Australian Natural History 14, 111-115.
  • Whitley GP ( 1964) A Survey of Australian Ichthyology. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 89
  • 1977 Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 101 (23 ): 256-260.
July 18 Allan Riverstone McCulloch
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