Clinton Hart Merriam
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5 1855-March 19 1942) was an American zoologist and ornithologist.
He was born in New York City in 1855. His father, Clinton Levi Merriam, was a U.S. congressman. He studied biology and anatomy at Yale University and went on to obtain an M.D. from the School of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1879.
In 1886, he became the first chief of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy of the United States Department of Agriculture, predecessor to the National Wildlife Research Center and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. He was one of the original founders of the National Geographic Society in 1888. He developed the "life zones" concept to classify biomes found in North America. Later in life, he studied Native American tribes in the western United States.
He died in Berkeley, California in 1942.
External Link
- USDA National Wildlife Research Center (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ws/nwrc/hx/merriam.html)
