Karl Patterson Schmidt
| Karl Patterson Schmidt | |
|---|---|
 Drawing of Karl Patterson Schmidt based on the photograph from The Field Museum of Natural History. | |
| Born |
June 19, 1890 Lake Forest, Illinois, U.S.A. |
| Died |
September 26, 1957 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | Biology, Herpetology |
| Institutions | American Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum |
| Alma mater | Lake Forest Academy, Cornell University |
| Notable students | Robert F. Inger |
| Notable awards | Guggenheim fellowship (1932), elected to National Academy of Sciences (1956), Ecological Society of America Eminent Ecologist (1957)[1] |
| Author abbreviation (zoology) | K. P. Schmidt |
| Spouse | Margaret Wightman |
Karl Patterson Schmidt (June 19, 1890, Lake Forest, Illinois – September 26, 1957, Chicago) was an American herpetologist.
Family
Schmidt was the son of George W. Schmidt and Margaret Patterson Schmidt. George W. Schmidt was a German professor who, at the time of Karl Schmidt's birth, was teaching in Lake Forest, Illinois. His family left the city in 1907 and settled in Wisconsin. They worked on a farm near Stanley, Wisconsin,[2] where his mother and his younger brother died in a fire on August 7, 1935. The brother, Franklin J. W. Schmidt, had been prominent in the then new field of wildlife management.[3] Karl Schmidt married Margaret Wightman in 1919, and they had two sons, John and Robert.[4]
Education
In 1913, Schmidt entered Cornell University to study biology and geology. In 1915, he discovered his preference for herpetology during a four-month training course at the Perdee Oil Company in Louisiana. In 1916, he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and made his first geological expedition to Santo Domingo. In 1952 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by Earlham College.[4]
Career
From 1916 to 1922, he worked as scientific assistant in herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, under the well-known American herpetologists Mary Cynthia Dickerson and Gladwyn K. Noble. He made his first collecting expedition to Puerto Rico in 1919, then became the assistant curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in 1922. From 1923 to 1934, he made several collecting expeditions for that museum to Central and South America, which took him to Honduras (1923), Brazil (1926) and Guatemala (1933–1934). In 1937, he became the editor of the herpetology and ichthyology journal Copeia, a post he occupied until 1949. In 1938, he served in the U.S. Army. He became the chief curator of zoology at the Field Museum in 1941, where he remained until his retirement in 1955. From 1942 to 1946, he was the president of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH). In 1953, he made his last expedition, which was to Israel.
Schmidt died in 1957 after being bitten by a juvenile boomslang snake (Dispholidus typus). Marlin Perkins, who was then the director of the Lincoln Park Zoo, had sent the snake to Schmidt's lab at the Field Museum in Chicago for identification. Schmidt underestimated the severity of the snakebite and, as a result, did not seek medical treatment until it was too late to counteract the effects of the boomslang's venom. He died 28 hours after the bite.
Schmidt was one of the most important herpetologists in the 20th century. Though he made only a few important discoveries by himself, he named more than 200 species. His donation of over 15,000 titles of herpetological literature formed the foundation for The Karl P. Schmidt Memorial Herpetological Library located at the Field Museum.[5]
Taxa
Species named for Karl Schmidt
Many species are named in his honor.
- Acanthodactylus schmidti
- Batrachuperus karlschmidti
- Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti
- Lerista karlschmidti
- Pseudoxenodon karlschmidti
Species described by Karl Schmidt
- Batrachuperus tibetanus[6]
- Eleutherodactylus wightmanae
- Leptopelis parvus Schmidt & Inger, 1959[7]
- Neurergus kaiseri
Publications
He wrote more than 200 articles and books, including Living Reptiles of the World, which became an international bestseller.
Books
- 1933 Amphibians and Reptiles Collected by The Smithsonian Biological Survey of the Panama Canal Zone
- 1934 Homes and Habits of Wild Animals
- 1938 Our Friendly Animals and When They Came
- 1941 Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada with Delbert Dwight Davis
- 1949 Principles of Animal Ecology with Warder Clyde Allee (1885–1955) and Alfred Edwards Emerson
- 1953 A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles
- 1957 Living Reptiles of the World with Robert Frederick Inger
Other publications
- Schmidt, Karl P. 1925. New Reptiles and a salamander from China. American Museum Novitates No. 157[6]
- Schmidt, Karl P. 1930. Reptiles of Marshall Field North Arabian desert expeditions, 1927–1928. Field Museum of Natural History Publication 273, Zoological series vol. 17, no. 6., p. 223-230.[8]
- Schmidt, Karl P. and Shannon, F. A. 1947. Notes on amphibians and reptiles of Michoacan, Mexico. Fieldiana Zool. 31:63–85[9]
References
- ↑ "ESA History/Awards". Ecological Society of America. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
- ↑ Myers, Charles W. (2000). "A History of Herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 252: 5–225 (19–20). doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2000)252<0001:AHOHAT>2.0.CO;2.
- ↑ Leopold, Aldo. "Franklin J. W. Schmidt". Wilson Bulletin 48 (3): 181–186.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Emerson, Alfred E. (May 1958). "K. P. Schmidt-Herpetologist, Ecologist, Zoogeographer". Science. 3307 127 (3307): 1162–1163. doi:10.1126/science.127.3307.1162. PMID 17771483.
- ↑ "Division of Amphibians and Reptiles History". The Field Museum. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Schmidt, Karl P. (February 13, 1925). "New reptiles and a salamander from China". American Museum Novitates (157): 1–6. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
- ↑ Schiøtz, Arne (2004). "Leptopelis parvus". IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.1. IUCN. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
- ↑ "Field Museum Library". Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ↑ Schmidt, Karl P.; Shannon, F. A. (Feb 1947). "Notes on amphibians and reptiles of Michoacan, Mexico". Fieldiana: Zoology 31 (9): 63–85. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
External links
|