Peter Martin Duncan

Peter Martin Duncan ( born April 20, 1824 in Twickenham, † May 28 1891 in Gunnersbury ) was an English paleontologist.

Duncan received his education partly at the local Grammar School Twickenham and partly in Switzerland. In 1842 he took up his studies at the medical branch of the King's College London, and received in 1846 the degree of Bachelor of Medicine. For a short time he worked as an assistant to a doctor in Rochester, before he independently made ​​up as a doctor in Colchester. He practiced from 1848 to 1860, and held during this time a year the office of mayor.

In 1860 he returned to London and worked for several years as a doctor in Blackheath. Finally, he gave up the career and devoted himself entirely to scientific research. First, the botany was his field of interest, but later on the geology and paleontology. Central object were the fossil corals, and 1863 he was the Geological Society of London was the first work of a series of essays on the fossil corals of the West Indian islands, where he not only described the species, but also conclusions about the physical geography of the Tertiary moved. Duncan expanded his work on coral different geological eras and different regions of the world, and gained a reputation as a leading authority in the field of fossil corals. He not only published work on fossil corals, but also some living forms. In addition, published essays on the Echinoidea and other fossil and living groups. For the Palaeontographical Society he edited the group of the British fossil corals, the work was published as an appendix to the monograph by Henri Milne -Edwards and Jules Haime, which was published 1866-1872. He was also the editor of six volumes in the series Cassell's Natural History ( 1877).

In 1868 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1870 he was offered a professor of geology at King 's College. 1876 ​​and 1877 he was president of the Geological Society, and received in 1881 the Wollaston Medal of the Society.