Thomas Blakiston

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Thomas Wright Blakiston

Thomas Wright Blakiston (December 27, 1832-October 15, 1891) was an English explorer and naturalist.

Born in Lymington, England, Blakiston was the son of Major John Blakiston, second son of Sir Matthew Blakiston, 2nd Baronet (see Blakiston Baronets for earlier history of the family). His mother was Jane, daughter of Reverend Thomas Wright, Rector of Market Bosworth, Leicestershire. Blakiston explored western Canada with the Palliser Expedition between 1857 and 1859. In 1862 he travelled up the Yangtze River in China, going further than any Westerner before him. He spent the next part of his life in Japan and became one of the major naturalists in that country. He moved to the United States in 1886. Blakiston died of pneumonia while in San Diego, California in 1891 and is buried in Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio.

Blakiston was the first person to notice that animals in Hokkaidō, Japan's northern island, were related to northern Asian species, whereas those on Honshū to the south were related to those from southern Asia. The Tsugaru Strait between the two islands was therefore established as a major zoogeographical boundary, and became known as the "Blakiston Line".

Blakiston collected an owl specimen in Hakodate, Japan in 1883. This was later described by Henry Seebohm and named Blakiston's Fish Owl.

Blakiston married Ann Mary, daughter of James Dunn, in 1885. They had at least two children. He died in October 1891, aged 58. His wife survived him by 46 years and died in March 1937.