Oliver Perry Hay

Oliver Perry Hay ( May 22nd, 1846 in Saluda, Indiana, † November 2, 1930 in Washington, DC) was an American zoologist and vertebrate paleontologist. He was particularly influential through the museum catalogs of fossil vertebrates that he created.

Hay was educated at Eureka College in Illinois with a bachelor 's degree in 1870 and was later a professor there from 1874 to 1876 and at Oskaloosa College in Iowa. 1876/77 he studied again at Yale University. He was from 1879 to 1892 professor of biology and geology at the University Butler ( Butler College) in Indianapolis, where he was involved in the founding of the Indiana Academy of Sciences and 1890/91 the President. In 1884 he received his doctorate from Indiana University. In 1889 he undertook his first field trip to Fossil Collecting in Western Kansas. 1884 to 1888 he was an assistant at Arkansas Geological Survey and from 1891 to 1894 at the Indiana Geological Survey.

1895 to 1897 he was Assistant Curator of Zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History. 1901 to 1907 he was an assistant, then associate curator and finally curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. During this time he published his 1902 catalog of the fossil vertebrates of North America, which became a standard work. 1907 to 1911 he worked on as a private scholar with paleontology. In 1912 he became a Research Associate of the Carnegie Institution and the National Museum of Natural History. 1917 to 1926 he was an associate of the Carnegie Institution.

He was a specialist in fossil fish but also dealt with other vertebrates, such as mammals of the Pleistocene and fossil turtles.

1902 to 1905 he was co-editor of the journal American Geologist.

His son William Perry Hay (1871-1947) was also a zoologist and dealt with reptiles and crustaceans.

Writings

• Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America, 1902
• The Pleistocene of North America, 3 volumes, 1925-1927
• The Fossil Turtles of North America, 1908