Everything about Joseph Leidy totally explained
Joseph Leidy (
September 9 1823 –
30 April 1891) was an
American paleontologist.
Leidy was professor of
anatomy at the
University of Pennsylvania, and later was a professor of natural history at
Swarthmore College. His book
Extinct Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska (1869) contained many species not previously described and many previously unknown on the
North American continent.
Leidy named the
holotype specimen of
Hadrosaurus foulkii, which was recovered from the
marl pits of
Haddonfield, New Jersey. It was notable for being the first nearly-complete
fossilized skeleton of a
dinosaur ever recovered. The specimen was originally discovered by
William Parker Foulke.
Leidy was also a renowned parasitologist, and determined as early as
1846 that
trichinosis was caused by a parasite in undercooked meat
(External Link
). He was also a pioneering protozoologist, publishing
Fresh-water Rhizopods of North America in 1879 - a masterpiece that's still referenced today.
Family
Joseph Leidy was born on September 9, 1823, to an established
Philadelphia family. At the time, scientific investigation was largely the province of wealthy amateurs.
He married Anna Hardin. Their marriage was childless, and they eventually adopted an orphaned girl.Emma Leidy is in his family.
Forensic innovator
In 1846, Leidy became the first to use a
microscope to solve a murder mystery. A man accused of killing a Philadelphia farmer had blood on his clothes and hatchet. The suspect claimed the blood was from chickens he'd been slaughtering. Using his microscope, Leidy found no
nuclei in these
erythrocytes (human erythrocytes are
anucleate). Moreover, he found that if he let chick erythrocytes remain outside the body for hours, they didn't lose their nuclei. Thus, he concluded that the blood stains couldn't have been chicken blood. The suspect subsequently confessed.
Further Information
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