science

Oldfield Thomas

Oldfield Thomas is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Oldfield Thomas rather than just read about it. In short: Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time.

Key takeaways

Oldfield Thomas belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Oldfield Thomas to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Oldfield Thomas from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist.

Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appointed to the museum secretary's office in 1876, transferring to the zoological department in 1878. In 1891, Thomas married Mary Kane, daughter of Sir Andrew Clark, heiress to a small fortune, which gave him the finances to hire mammal collectors and present their specimens to the museum. He also did field work himself in Western Europe and South America. His wife shared his interest in natural history, and accompanied him on collecting trips. In 1896, when William Henry Flower took control of the department, he hired Richard Lydekker to rearrange the exhibitions, allowing Thomas to concentrate on these new specimens. On 6 June 1901 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Thomas viewed his taxonomy efforts from the scope of British imperialism. "You and I in our scientific lives have seen the general knowledge of Mammals of the world wonderfully advanced – there are few or no blank areas anymore", he said in a letter to Gerrit Smith Miller Jr. Officially retired from the museum in 1923, he continued his work without interruption. Although popular rumours suggested he died by shooting himself with a handgun while sitting at his museum desk, he actually died at home in 1929, aged 71, about a year after the death of his wife, "a severe blow from which he never recovered."

Taxonomic descriptions

Higher ranks

Genera

Species

See also Category:Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas

References

External links

Works by or about Michael Roger Oldfield Thomas at Wikisource

Further reading The collected works of Oldfield Thomas

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Oldfield Thomas

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Oldfield Thomas claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Oldfield Thomas before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Oldfield Thomas ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Oldfield Thomas

In research: Oldfield Thomas appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Oldfield Thomas in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Oldfield Thomas is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1858 births, 1929 deaths, 19th-century British zoologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Oldfield Thomas outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Oldfield Thomas in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Oldfield Thomas means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Oldfield Thomas out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oldfield Thomas in simple terms?

Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time.

Why does Oldfield Thomas matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Oldfield Thomas?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Oldfield Thomas.