Leidy, Joseph

Leidy, Joseph

(1823–91) zoologist, paleontologist; born in Philadelphia. He was a trained medical doctor and professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania (1853–91). A scientist of unusual range, Leidy published a classic anatomical text and important works on parasitology and protozoa. In addition he is regarded (along with Edward Drinker Cope and O. C. Marsh) as a founder of American vertebrate paleontology; dismayed by his colleagues' contentiousness, however, he abandoned that field after publishing his major work, "The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska" (1869).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Leidy, Joseph

 

Born Sept. 9, 1823, in Philadelphia; died there Apr. 30, 1891. American biologist. Professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania (from 1853).

Leidy’s main works dealt with paleontology, zoology, comparative anatomy, and botany. His studies on reptiles of the Cretaceous and mammals of the Paleogene in North America are very well known. He elucidated the origin and history of development of several animal groups.

WORKS

Cretaceous Reptiles of the United States. Washington, 1865.
Researches in Helminthology and Parasitology. Washington, 1904.

REFERENCE

Davitashvili, L. Sh. Istoriia evoliutsionnoi paleontologii ot Darvina do nashikh dnei. Moscow-Leningrad, 1948.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.