Percy Raymond
{{Short description|American paleontologist (1879–1952)}}{{Infobox person
| name = Percy Edward Raymond
| birth_date = {{birth date|1879|05|30}}
| birth_place = New Canaan, Connecticut, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1952|05|17|1879|05|30}}
| death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
| education = Cornell University, Yale University
| occupation = Paleontologist
}}
Percy Edward Raymond (30 May 1879 – 17 May 1952) was an American geologist, paleontologist, and professor at Harvard University who specialized in the evolution of trilobites and studied fossils from the Burgess Shale.
Life and scientific career
Raymond was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, son of George Edward and Harriet Frances née Beers. He studied at Cornell University and although aiming to become an engineer, became fascinated by lectures of Gilbert Dennison Harris. He then went on to study paleontology, receiving a PhD from Yale University in 1904 under the supervision of Charles Emerson Beecher. He worked at the Carnegie Museum and the Geological Survey of Canada before becoming an assistant professor at Harvard University and its Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1910. He worked there until his retirement in 1945, rising to the rank of full professor by 1929 and continuing on as an emeritus professor.{{cite journal |author=Stetson, H. C. |year=1952 |title=Memorial to Percy Edward Raymond |journal=Proceedings of the Geological Society of America |pages=121–126}}{{Cite book |last=Gillispie |first=Charles Coulston |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofscie1112gill |title=Dictionary of Scientific Biography |last2=Holmes |first2=Frederic Lawrence |last3=American Council of Learned Societies |date=1981 |publisher=Scribner |isbn=978-0-684-16962-0 |location=New York |pages=321 |language=en}}
Raymond's major work was based on a rediscovery of the specimens in the Burgess Shale. The largest fossil collections had been made by Charles Doolittle Walcott and after his death in 1927, his collections, then thought to be exhaustive, were not allowed to be examined by his widow Mary Vaux Walcott.{{cite book |author=Collins, Desmond H. |title=Life in Stone: A Natural History of British Columbia's Fossils |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |year=1996 |editor=Ludvigsen, Rolf |pages=69–77 |chapter=The Burgess Shale: a spectacular Cambrian Bestiary}} Raymond then re-examined the same region and found a major bed higher up which has been called the Raymond Quarry.{{Cite journal |last=Whittington |first=Harry B. |date=2003 |title=The Burgess Shale, retrospect and prospect |journal=Paleontological Research |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=3–7 |doi=10.2517/prpsj.7.3 |s2cid=130263997 |issn=1342-8144|doi-access=free }} Raymond examined trilobite evolution over time through morphology of specimens from various points in time.{{Cite journal |last=Allmon |first=Warren D. |date=2013 |editor-last=Saupe |editor-first=Erin |title=Species, speciation and palaeontology up to the Modern Synthesis: persistent themes and unanswered questions |journal=Palaeontology |language=en |volume=56 |issue=6 |pages=1199–1223 |doi=10.1111/pala.12054|s2cid=83650086 |doi-access=free }} He especially looked at variations in the appendages and examined similarities with other groups including the insects, crustaceans and arachnids, exploring the apparent explosion of life forms in the Cambrian period.{{Cite journal |last1=Nicol |first1=David |last2=Cope |date=1966 |title=Cope's Rule and Precambrian and Cambrian Invertebrates |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1301964 |journal=Journal of Paleontology |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=1397–1399 |issn=0022-3360 |jstor=1301964}}
Raymond was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. He received a Walker Grand Prize of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1928 for his monograph on trilobites.{{Cite journal |date=1928-05-25 |title=Scientific Notes and News |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.67.1743.526 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=67 |issue=1743 |pages=526–530 |doi=10.1126/science.67.1743.526 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}
Personal life
Raymond collected pewter and studied the history of early American pewterers and their methods. He co-founded the Pewter Collectors Club of America. His pewter-related research papers are held by the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.{{Cite book |last=McKinstry |first=E. Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetowinterthu00jose |title=Guide to the Winterthur Library: The Joseph Downs Collection and the Winterthur Archives |date= |publisher=Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library |year=2003 |pages=432 |language=en}}
Raymond died at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 72. His wife Eva Grace (née Goodenough) and daughter Ruth Elspeth survived him.{{cite news|title=Dr. Percy E. Raymond, Paleontologist, 72| newspaper=New York Times |date= 20 May 1952|page= 25}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- The appendages, anatomy and relationships of trilobites (1920)
- Prehistoric Life (1947)
- [https://www.conchology.be/?t=9001&id=33820 Biography]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond, Percy}}
Category:American paleontologists
Category:Cornell University alumni
Category:Harvard University faculty
Category:Yale University alumni