Marcus Ward Lyon Jr. (February 5, 1875 – May 19, 1942) was an American mammalogist, bacteriologist, and pathologist. He was born into a military family, and demonstrated an early interest in zoology by collecting local wildlife around his father's army posts. He graduated from Brown University in 1897, and continued his studies at George Washington University while working part-time at the United States National Museum (USNM). At the same time, he taught at Howard University Medical School and later George Washington University Medical School. He received his Ph.D. from George Washington University in 1913. In 1919, he and his wife, Martha, moved to South Bend, Indiana, to join a newly opened clinic. Prior to moving, Lyon had published many papers on mammalogy, both during and after his tenure at the USNM. In these papers, he had formally described six species, three genera, and one family. Once in South Bend, he began to publish medical studies, too, but continued his work in mammalogy, with a particular focus on the local fauna of Indiana. He published more than 160 papers during his career. Lyon acquired the rank of major in the Medical Reserve Corps during World War I, and was appointed president of the American Society of Mammalogists from 1931 to 1932. He was a member of Sigma Xi, the Society of American Bacteriologists, the Indiana Academy of Science, and the Biological Society of Washington. Lyon became a conservationist later in life.
Early life and education Lyon was born on February 5, 1875, in Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois. His family included his father, Captain Marcus Ward Lyon Sr.; his mother, Lydia Anna Lyon; and his two brothers, Henry S. Lyon and James W. Lyon. Because of his father's military career, Lyon's family moved across the United States throughout his childhood and adolescence. The first hint of the young Lyon's future scientific interests came while they were stationed at Watertown Arsenal, near Boston, Massachusetts, where he began collecting insects and animals from the local area. No other details of his early life were documented until 1893, when he graduated from Rock Island High School—his father had evidently been re-stationed at Rock Island Arsenal at about this time. He attended Brown University and completed his Ph.B. in 1897, which included training in biology. In 1898, he began his graduate studies at George Washington University, obtaining his M.S. in 1900, his M.D. in 1902, and his Ph.D. in 1913.
Career
Upon completion of his first degree, Lyon spent a year (1897–1898) at North Carolina Medical College, where he taught bacteriology. In conjunction with his graduate studies, he moved to Washington, D.C., in 1898 to become a part-time Aid in the Division of Mammals at the United States National Museum (USNM). Lyon was later promoted to Assistant Curator for Mammals. The USNM sent him to Venezuela with Lieutenant Wirt Robinson of the United States Army in 1899 to collect mammal specimens, and later appointed him as its Chief Special Agent for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon. He retained his post at the USNM until 1912. Lyon taught physiology (1903–04 and 1907–09) and bacteriology (1909–15) at Howard University Medical School. In the latter half of 1915, Lyon began teaching at George Washington University Medical School, handling courses in bacteriology and pathology until 1917, and veterinary zoology and parasitology from 1917 until 1918. In 1917, he joined the U.S. Army, serving as a pathologist at the Walter Reed Army Hospital during World War I. In September 1919, he transferred to the Medical Reserve Corps as a major. By the end of that year, Lyon's 18 years of medical teaching and practice resulted in a job offer in pathology at the South Bend Clinic in South Bend, Indiana. His wife, Martha, was also extended a job offer at the same clinic, and joined as an ophthalmologist. Lyon maintained his offices at the clinic until his death in 1942. Because of his work as a mammalogist, Lyon is considered the taxonomic authority for the family Ptilocercidae (pen-tailed treeshrews), as well as the genus Anathana (the Madras treeshrew) and two genera of leporids (rabbits and hares), Pentalagus (the Amami rabbit) and Pronolagus (red rock hares). Lyon was the first to describe the Bornean white-bearded gibbon (Hylobates albibarbis), the Gansu pika (Ochotona cansus), the Sumatran porcupine (Hystrix sumatrae), the shadowy broad-nosed bat (Platyrrhinus umbratus), and two species of slow loris from Borneo, Nycticebus bancanus and Nycticebus borneanus. His private zoological collections were incorporated into the collections at the USNM. Lyon created two herbariums, the first containing plant specimens from Oregon and the second from the Indiana Dunes and lower Michigan. The former was included in the United States National Herbarium, now the United States Botanic Garden, and the latter at the University of Michigan Herbarium.
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