Portal:Crustaceans/Selected biography/7

The Reverend Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing F.R.S., F.L.S. (February 6, 1835 – July 8, 1926) was a British zoologist, who described himself as "a serf to natural history, principally employed about Crustacea".

Having trained as an evangelical Anglican, Stebbing expected to be a staunch opponent of Charles Darwin's recently published theory of evolution by natural selection. Following a critical review of The Descent of Man in The Times in 1871, Stebbing gained prominence by responding in Nature. Stebbing wrote a number of essays on the topic of Darwinism, in which he dissected the argument posited against it, and questioned various aspects of Christianity. His outspoken stance resulted in his being banned from preaching, and he was never offered a parish by the church.

Most of Stebbing's scientific works, comprising more than 110 papers, covered amphipod crustaceans. Stebbing produced a monograph on the amphipods collected on the 1872–1876 expedition by HMS Challenger. He also produced a monograph of the Cumacea, a natural history of the Crustacea, and a biography of the Scottish naturalist and founder of the University Marine Biological Station, Millport, David Robertson. In 1906, Stebbing published the volume on Gammaridea for the series Das Tierreich.