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Dennis Chitty

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Dennis Hubert Chitty
Born(1912-09-18)September 18, 1912
DiedFebruary 3, 2010(2010-02-03) (aged 97)
Alma mater
Known forChitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisorCharles Sutherland Elton
Doctoral studentsCharles Krebs

Dennis Hubert Chitty FRSC (18 September 1912 – 3 February 2010), was a professor of zoology at the University of British Columbia. In 1969, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[1]

The Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation states that population density is limited by spacing behaviour, which has genetic underpinnings and rapidly responds to natural selection.[2] Because of the controversial nature of this idea at the time, David Lack attempted to veto Chitty's dissertation, though it was eventually accepted because of the intervention of Peter Medawar.[3]

References

  1. ^ Obituary
  2. ^ Krebs, Charles J. (1978). "A review of the Chitty Hypothesis of population regulation". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 56 (12): 2463–2480. doi:10.1139/z78-335.
  3. ^ Was the Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation a ‘Big Idea’ in Ecology and was it successful?