Lankester, Sir Edwin Ray

Lankester, Sir Edwin Ray (lăng`kəstər), 1847–1929, English zoologist. He was a professor at University College, London (1874–90) and Oxford (1891–98) and was director of the natural history department of the British Museum (1898–1907). He was a founder (1884) of the Marine Biological Association, which established an important station at Plymouth. Influential as teacher and writer on biological theories, comparative anatomy, and evolution, Lankester studied the protozoa, mollusca, and arthropoda. He was knighted in 1907.