Richard Harlan

For other people with the same name, seeHarlan § Surname.

Richard Harlan
Born	(1796-09-19)September 19, 1796 Philadelphia,USA
Died	September 30, 1843(1843-09-30)(aged 47) New Orleans,Louisiana, USA
Education	University of Pennsylvania
Known for	Study of vertebrate paleontology
Relatives	Josiah Harlan(brother)
Awards	American Philosophical Society
Scientific career
Fields	Paleontologist, anatomist, physician
Institutions	British East India Company,Philadelphia museum
Author abbrev. (zoology)	Harlan

Richard Harlan(September 19, 1796 – September 30, 1843) was an Americanpaleontologist,anatomist,and physician. He was the first American to devote significant time and attention to vertebrate paleontology and was one of the most important contributors to the field in the early nineteenth century. His work was noted for its focus on objective descriptions, taxonomy and nomenclature. He was the first American to routinely apply binomial Linnaean names to vertebrate and invertebrate fossils.Prior to the time of Harlan, it was common practice to publish only a genus name for a fossil animal that was new to science.

Biography

Harlan was born inPhiladelphiaon September 19, 1796, to Joshua Harlan, a wealthyQuakermerchant, and his wife Sarah Hinchman Harlan, one of their ten children. He was three years older than his brotherJosiah Harlan,who would become the first American to visitAfghanistan.Harlan graduated in medicine from theUniversity of Pennsylvaniain 1818 after taking time off during his studies to spend a year sailing to India as aship's surgeonfor theBritish East India Company.He worked briefly at the private medical school of Joseph Parish. He wrote a text on the human brainAnatomical Investigations(1824).In 1820, he was a physician at the Philadelphia Dispensary, where he worked withPhilip Syng Physick.In 1822 he was elected professor ofcomparative anatomyatCharles Wilson Peale'sPhiladelphia Museum.One of his passions was the collection and study of human skulls. In 1822, he was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.At its peak, his collection contained 275 skulls, the largest such collection in America.In 1825 he publishedFauna Americana,a catalogue of American mammals, including those known only from fossils.In 1832 he went to Montreal to study a cholera epidemic.

Harlan also collected and received natural history specimens from a number of his friends and colleagues including Dr William Blanding (1773-1857), Samuel George Morton (1799-1851), and Samuel Wilson (and his son). He collaborated with other naturalists and supportedAudubonduring his travels. He described a number of species includingMacroclemys temminckii,Harlan's ground sloth,Harlan's muskoxand the IndianHoolock gibbon.A parasite of the alligator snapping turtle is named after himEimeria harlani.

In 1833 he attended a meeting of theBritish Association for the Advancement of Sciencewhere he presented information on the fossil reptiles of America. He made an error in describing a species calledOsteopera platycephalabased on the skull ofAgouti paca.He was criticized by his colleague from the Peale museum,John D. Godman(1794-1830), who wrote anonymously. In 1834, Harlan described and namedBasilosaurus( "king lizard" ), a genus ofearly whale,erroneously assuming he had found aPlesiosaurus-like dinosaur.In 1839 he visited Europe again and received a plaster copy ofMosasaurus hoffmanniifrom the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle that is now in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. While in France he received news of a fire that had destroyed his collections. In 1842 he moved toNew Orleans,Louisianawhere he died ofapoplexya year later.

Works

Harlan was the author of several books including:

• Fauna Americana(1825)
• American Herpetology(1827)
• Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy(1835)

Further reading

• Gerstner, Patsy (1999)."Harlan, Richard".In Garraty, John A. (ed.).American National Biography.Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1300697.
• Simpson, George Gaylord (1942)."The Beginnings of Vertebrate Paleontology in North America"(PDF).Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.86(1): 130–188.
• Sterling, Keir B., ed. (1997). "Harlan, Richard".Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists.Greenwood Press.
• Spamer, Earle E.; McCourt, Richard M. (2006)."Richard Harlan. Indefatigable collector".Discovering Lewis & Clark.Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.Retrieved2021-09-04.
• "Richard Harlan Journals".American Philosophical Society Library.American Philosophical Society.