Addison Emery Verrill

Addison Emery Verrill (1839, Greenwood, Maine – 1926, Santa Barbara, California) was an American zoologist. He studied under Louis Agassiz at Harvard University and graduated in 1862. He then accepted a position as Yale University's first Professor of Zoology, and taught there from 1864 until his retirement in 1907. Between 1868–70 he was professor of comparative anatomy and entomology in the University of Wisconsin. From 1860 Verrill investigated the invertebrate fauna of the Atlantic coast, with especial reference to the corals, annelids, echinoderms, and mollusks, and became the chief authority on the living cephalopods, especially the colossal squids of the North Atlantic. His "Report upon the Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard Sound" (1874), with S. I. Smith, is a standard manual of the marine zoology of southern New England. His collections were deposited in the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. In later life he explored with his students the geology and marine animals of the Bermuda Islands. Besides many memoirs and articles on the subjects mentioned above, he published "The Bermuda Islands" (1903; second edition, 1907).

Verrill published more than 350 papers and monographs, and described more than 1,000 species of animals in virtually every major taxonomy group.

In 1959, Yale's Peabody Museum established the Addison Emory Verrill Medal, awarded for achievement in the natural sciences.

His son, Alpheus Hyatt Verrill, known as Hyatt Verrill, (1871-1954) was an American archaeologist, explorer, inventor, illustrator and author.

External links

* [http://www.yale.edu/peabody/archives/ypmbios/verrill.html Yale Peabody Museum biography]
* [http://www.calacademy.org/research/izg/Verrill.html Photograph of Addison E. Verrill, California Academy of Sciences]

Persondata
NAME= Verrill, Addison Emery
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH=1839
PLACE OF BIRTH=Greenwood, Maine
DATE OF DEATH=1926
PLACE OF DEATH=Santa Barbara, California