Richard Lydekker

Map showing Lydekker's line in relation to those of Wallace and Weber, as well as the probable extent of land at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, when the sea level was more than 110 m lower than today.

Richard Lydekker (25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was an English naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history.

Biography

Lydekker was born in London, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a first-class in the Natural Science tripos (1872). In 1874 he joined the Geological Survey of India and made studies of the vertebrate paleontology of northern India (especially Kashmir). He remained in this post until 1882. He was responsible for the cataloguing of the fossil mammals, reptiles and birds in the Natural History Museum (10 vols., 1891). His books included A Manual of Palaeontology (with Henry Alleyne Nicholson, 2 vols., 1889), Phases of Animal Life (1892) The Royal Natural History (with W. H. Flower, 8 vols., 1893-6) and The Wild Animals of India, Burma, Malaya, and Tibet (1900). He was a contributor to Encyclopædia Britannica's 11th edition.

Lydekker was also influential in the science of biogeography. In 1895 he delineated the biogeographical boundary through Indonesia, known as Lydekker's Line, that separates Wallacea on the west from Australia-New Guinea on the east.

Lydekker wrote the Royal Natural History London, Frederick Warne & Co, 1894–96 a twelve volume popular work.

See also

• Australia (continent)
• Wallace Line
• Wallacea
• Weber Line

References

•  "Lydekker, Richard". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). 1922. 

External links

• Media related to Richard Lydekker at Wikimedia Commons
• Partial bibliography at DinoData
• Lydekkers publications about rhinos
• map of Wallace's, Weber's and Lydekker's lines
• BDH Online versions of some Richard Lydekker publications.