earth science

Richard Lydekker

Richard Lydekker is a earth 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 Richard Lydekker rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was a British naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history. He was known for his contributions to zoology, paleontology, and biogeography.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was a British naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history. He was known for his contributions to zoology, paleontology, and biogeography. He worked extensively in cataloging fossil vertebrates and describing new species, particularly from India, where he spent several years studying the region's prehistoric fauna. Lydekker was a key figure in the field of vertebrate paleontology, authoring numerous scientific papers and books that helped classify extinct and extant species.

Biography Richard Lydekker was born at Tavistock Square in London. His father was Gerard Wolfe Lydekker, a barrister-at-law with Dutch ancestry. The family moved to Harpenden Lodge soon after Richard's birth. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a first-class in the Natural Science tripos (1872). In 1874 he joined the Geological Survey of India and made studies of the vertebrate palaeontology of northern India (especially Kashmir). He remained in this post until the death of his father in 1881. His main work in India was on the Siwalik palaeofauna; it was published in Palaeontologia Indica. He was responsible for the cataloguing of the fossil mammals, reptiles, and birds in the Natural History Museum (10 vols., 1891), where he worked in an honorary capacity for the rest of his life. He named a variety of taxa, including the golden-bellied mangabey; as a taxon authority, he is named simply as "Lydekker".

Biogeography

He was influential in the science of biogeography. In 1896, he delineated the biogeographical boundary through Indonesia, known as Lydekker's Line, that separates Wallacea on the west from Australia-New Guinea on the east. It follows the edge of the Sahul Shelf, an area from New Guinea to Australia of shallow water with the Aru Islands on its edge. Along with Wallace's Line and others, it indicates the definite effect of geology on the biogeography of the region, something not seen so clearly in other parts of the world.

First cuckoo Lydekker attracted amused public attention with a pair of letters to The Times in 1913, when he wrote on 6 February that he had heard a cuckoo, contrary to Yarrell's History of British Birds which doubted the bird arrived before April. Six days later, on 12 February 1913, he wrote again, confessing that "the note was uttered by a bricklayer's labourer". Letters about the first cuckoo became a tradition in the newspaper.

Awards He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1894, and received the Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London in 1902.

Works Catalogue of the Fossil Mammalia in the British Museum (Natural History), 5 vols. (1885–1887) Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History), 4 vols. (1889) A Manual of Palaeontology (with Henry Alleyne Nicholson, 2 vols., 1889) Catalogue of the Fossil Birds in the British Museum (Natural History) (1891) Phases of Animal Life (1892) The Royal Natural History (with W. H. Flower), 6 vols., 12 sec. (1893–1896) A Hand-book to the Marsupialia and Monotremata (1894) Life and Rock: A Collection of Zoological and Geological Essays (1894) A Geographical History of Mammals (1896) A Hand-book to the British Mammalia (1896) A Handbook to the Carnivora: part 1: cats, civets, and mongooses (1896) The Deer of all Lands: A history of the family Cervidae, living and extinct (1898) Wild Oxen, Sheep & Goats of all Lands, Living and Extinct (1898) The Wild Animals of India, Burma, Malaya, and Tibet (1900) The great and small game of Europe, western & northern Asia and America (1901) The New Natural History 6 vols. (1901) Living Races of Mankind: A popular illustrated account of the customs, habits, pursuits, feasts, and ceremonies of the races of mankind throughout the world, 2 vols. (1902), with Henry Neville Hutchinson and John Walter Gregory Mostly Mammals: Zoological Essays (1903) Guide to the Gallery of Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (1906) Sir William Flower (1906) The Game Animals of India, Burma, Malaya, and Tibet (rev. ed.) (1907) Guide to the Great Game Animals (Ungulata) in British Museum (1907) Guide to the Specimens of the Horse Family (Equidæ) in British Museum (1907) The Game Animals of Africa (1908) A Guide to the Domesticated Animals (other than horses) (1908) Guide to the Whales, Porpoises, and Dolphins (order Cetacea) (1909) A number of articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911 Animal Portraiture (1912) The Horse and its Relatives (1912) The Sheep and its Cousins (1912) Catalogue of the heads and horns of Indian big game bequeathed by A. O. Hume ... to the British Museum (Natural History) (1913) Catalogue of the ungulate mammals in the British Museum (Natural History) 5 vols. (1913–1916) Wild Life of the World: a descriptive survey of the geographical distribution of animals 3 vols. (1916)

See also Australia (continent) Wallace Line Wallacea Weber Line

References

External links

Works by Richard Lydekker at the Biodiversity Heritage Library Works by Richard Lydekker at Open Library Works by or about Richard Lydekker at the Internet Archive Works by Richard Lydekker at Project Gutenberg

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Lydekker

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Lydekker claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth 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 Richard Lydekker 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 Richard Lydekker 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 Richard Lydekker

In research: Richard Lydekker appears in earth 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 Richard Lydekker 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: Richard Lydekker is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1849 births, 1915 deaths, 19th-century English naturalists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Lydekker 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 Richard Lydekker in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Lydekker 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 Richard Lydekker out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Lydekker in simple terms?

Why does Richard Lydekker matter?

Because it connects several earth 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 Richard Lydekker?

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 Richard Lydekker.