James Hamilton McLean

James Hamilton McLean ( b. 1936 ) is an American malacologist and biologist who deals with molluscs. He is a specialist in marine snails and examined many gastropod families in the eastern Pacific, so among other things, the Fissurellidae, Trochidae, Turbinidae and Liotiidae. In addition, he has discovered and examined live snails in the deep ocean around hydrothermal sources.

Career

James Hamilton McLean studied at Wesleyan University Zoology and made 1958 a bachelor's degree (BA Zoology ).

His doctorate in zoology, he passed at Stanford University in 1996 and got the title of Ph.D. in zoology.

Shortly before the completion of his doctoral thesis, he was curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where he worked for over 35 years. In 2001, he went into retirement, but has since then acted as Curator Emeritus continue.

Research

His research interest was in the scheme of marine snails of the eastern Pacific. He paid particular attention to the Patellogastropoda and Vetigastropoda, especially the families Fissurellidae, Trochidae, Turbinidae, Colloniidae and Liotiidae, but also the Turridae family within the Neogastropoden.

His work on the snail fauna of the North Pacific in 1969 he summed together in the Marine Shells of Southern California manual.

In 1977, he discovered in the area of submarine hydrothermal vents new gastropod communities. There he studied and named many species of limpets, including the Clypeosectidae.

Overall, James Hamilton McLean described the 400 new species. In 2007 he began with the drafting of two major monographs.

Credentials

• Brief biography at the NHM