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Othniel Charles Marsh
American paleontologist (1831–1899) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among his legacies are the discovery or description of dozens of new species and theories on the origins of birds.
Othniel Charles Marsh | |
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Born | (1831-10-29)October 29, 1831 Lockport, New York, United States |
Died | March 18, 1899(1899-03-18) (aged 67) |
Alma mater | Yale College (BA, MA) University of Berlin Heidelberg University University of Breslau |
Awards | Bigsby Medal (1877) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Paleontology |
Institutions | Yale University |
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Born into a modest family, Marsh was able to afford higher education thanks to the generosity of his wealthy uncle George Peabody. After graduating from Yale College in 1860 he travelled the world, studying anatomy, mineralogy and geology. He obtained a teaching position at Yale upon his return. From the 1870s to 1890s, he competed with rival paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in a period of frenzied Western American expeditions known as the Bone Wars. Marsh's greatest legacy is the collection of Mesozoic reptiles, Cretaceous birds, and Mesozoic and Tertiary mammals that now constitute the backbone of the collections of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution. Marsh has been called "both a superb paleontologist and the greatest proponent of Darwinism in nineteenth-century America."[1]