William King (geologist)

William King (* April 1809 in County Durham, North East England, † June 24, 1886 in Taylor 's Hill, Galway at Glenoir ) was a British geologist. In 1864 he introduced the name Homo neanderthalensis for the fossil Neanderthal 1, which was discovered in mid-August 1856 in a putative Neandertal valley portion of Düsseldorf in the low mountainous land, 13 kilometers east of Dusseldorf.

Life

King had completed no academic studies after his schooling. In addition to his day job as owner of a bookstore, he taught himself through self-study anatomy and collected minerals and fossils. Thus he became interested in geology, access to scientific circles. From 1841 to 1849 he was curator in today Hancock Museum Natural History Museum referred to in Newcastle -upon- Tyne. As a lecturer he taught in these years geology at the local School of Medicine.

1849 King was to Ireland to the Chair of Mineralogy and Geology in the newly established Queen's College, Galway, called today National University of Ireland, Galway. There, he worked on until his retirement in 1883 with the geology of Ireland, among other things, with the emergence of the Burren, and he explored putative fossils of early creatures from the Permian ( so-called Eozoen ). 1882/83, King was also a professor of natural history.

In 1852 he set up his private collection from the holdings of a geological museum at Queen's College, now James Mitchell Geology Museum. He also served as a consultant, as the route for the laying of the transatlantic cable was laid down.

1870 he was awarded an honorary doctorate, the first one was given by his university.

William King in 1886 buried in the New Cemetery, Galway.

Works

  • The Permian Fossils of England. The Palaeontographical Society, London, 1950. Fulltext Reproduction
  • Thomas Henry Rowney: An Old Chapter of the Geological Record, with a New Interpretation: or, rock Metamorphism (especially the Methylosed child) and its Resultant imitation of Organisms. John Van Voorst, London 1881 Full text ( PDF; 6.55 MB )
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