Wann Langston, Jr.

When Langston Jr. ( * July 10, 1921 in Oklahoma City, † April 7, 2013 ) was an American vertebrate paleontologist, especially for reptiles such as dinosaurs and amphibians.

Langston studied geology and paleontology at the University of Oklahoma ( 1943 Bachelor, Master's thesis 1947 A new genus and species of Cretaceous theropod dinosaur from the Trinity of Atoka County, Oklahoma) was founded in 1952 and received his PhD at the University of California. 1946 to 1948 he was Instructor of Geology at TexTech College. 1949 to 1954 he was a taxidermist at the Museum of Paleontology, University of California, 1951/52, as a lecturer. From 1954 to 1962 he was at the National Museum of Canada as a curator of Vertebrate Paleontology ( in succession by Charles M. Sternberg, son of Charles H. Sternberg ). After that, he conducted research at the Texas Memorial Museum (now the Texas Natural Science Center ) and the University of Texas, where he from 1969 to 1986 the Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology initiated ( and was succeeded by Erik Lundelius ). In 1974 he was at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and in 1975 he was professor of geology at the University of Texas at Austin ( in 1983 as Professor Jaeger ). Even after retirement in 1986, he continued working on excavations. He also took care of the collections of the Texas A & M University.

In 1950 he described with J. Willis Stovall the carnivorous dinosaurs Acrocanthosaurus. In Canada, he dug into the rich dinosaur sites from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, including the Scabby Butte ( north Lethbridge ) reference to the Ceratopsiers Pachyrhinosaurus from 1957, where even Charles M. Sternberg first discoveries made ​​in the early 1950s. In Texas Langston examined, among other vertebrate fossils of the Cretaceous from the Big Bend National Park. He examined, among other extinct crocodiles, the big pterosaurs Quetzalcoatlus from the Big Bend National Park ( where Douglas A. Lawson 1971 first finds this Pterosauriers made ​​) and reptiles from the Permian.

In 2007 he was awarded the Romer -Simpson Medal the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, its vice president, he in 1973/74 and which he was President 1974/75. In 1988, he became its honorary member.

He was married since 1946 and has two children.