Kenneth Kermack

{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=August 2022}}

{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Kenneth Alexander Kermack

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = 1919

| birth_place =

| death_date = 2000 (aged 80-81)

| death_place =

| nationality = British

| other_names =

| fields = Vertebrate palaeontology

| alma_mater =

| work_institutions = University College London

| occupation = palaeontologist

| doctoral_students = Colin Patterson, Susan E. Evans

| notable_students =

}}

Kenneth Alexander Kermack (1919 – 2000) was a British palaeontologist at University College London most notable for his work on early mammals with his wife, Doris Mary Kermack.{{cite book|author=Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska|title=In Pursuit of Early Mammals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wuwtxuJoX6IC&pg=PA80|date=12 July 2013|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-00824-4|pages=80–100}}

Among Kermack's other significant contributions was the observation that Diplodocus could not have had an aquatic lifestyle because sheer water pressure alone on its chest would have prevented it breathing whilst submerged.{{Cite journal | last1 = Kermack | first1 = K. A. | title = LXXX.—A note on the habits of the Sauropods | doi = 10.1080/00222935108654213 | journal = Journal of Natural History |series=Series 12 | volume = 4 | issue = 44 | pages = 830–832 | year = 1951 }}{{cite book|author1=David Lambert|author2=Dorling Kindersley Publishing Staff|title=Dinosaur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dfwg4Y4lHrIC&pg=PA66|date=1 April 2010|publisher=Dorling Kindersley Limited|isbn=978-1-4053-4540-8|page=66}}

He first described the early mammal Aegialodon dawsoni from a molar tooth{{Cite journal | last1 = Kermack | first1 = K. A. | last2 = Lees | first2 = P. M. | last3 = Mussett | first3 = F. | doi = 10.1098/rspb.1965.0055 | title = Aegialodon dawsoni, A New Trituberculosectorial Tooth from the Lower Wealden | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | volume = 162 | issue = 989 | pages = 535–554 | year = 1965 | pmid = 4378463 | bibcode = 1965RSPSB.162..535K | s2cid = 39141524 }}{{cite book|author1=Jason A. Lillegraven|author2=Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska|author3=William A. Clemens|title=Mesozoic Mammals: The First Two-Thirds of Mammalian History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=voLf4BxSpWkC&pg=PA183|date=17 December 1979|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-03951-3|page=183}} and the docodont Simpsonodon oxfordensis.{{Cite journal | last1 = Kermack | first1 = K. A. | last2 = Lee | first2 = A. J. | last3 = Lees | first3 = P. M. | last4 = Mussett | first4 = F. | title = A new docodont from the Forest Marble | doi = 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1987.tb01342.x | journal = Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society | volume = 89 | pages = 1–39 | year = 1987 | doi-access = }}Sigogneau-Russell, D. 2001. Docodont nature of Cyrtlatherium, an upper Bathonian mammal from England. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 46:427–430. http://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app46-427.html

He was also interested in astronomy, elected a member of the British Astronomical Association on 23 February 1966,http://adslabs.org/adsabs/abs/1966JBAA...76..445./{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} a member until his death in 2000.{{Cite journal|url=http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=2001JBAA..111..273H&db_key=AST&page_ind=0&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES|bibcode = 2001JBAA..111..273H|title = Report of the Council and Accounts for the session 2000 August 1 to 2001 July 31|last1 = Hewitt|first1 = N. D.|last2 = Tucker|first2 = D.|journal = Journal of the British Astronomical Association|year = 2001|volume = 111|page = 273}}