The New International Encyclopædia/Davidson, Thomas (paleontologist)

DAVIDSON, (1817–85). An English geologist and paleontologist, born in Edinburgh. He studied on the Continent and at Edinburgh University, made extensive geological tours, and at the suggestion of Leopold von Buch, the German geologist, undertook the study of the Brachiopoda. In 1851-70 he published, under the direction of the Paleontographical Society, his important monograph on British Brachiopoda (3 vols.), containing 250 plates drawn by himself. To this work he added (1873-1885) three supplementary volumes. His Memoir on Recent Brachiopoda was posthumously published by the Linnæan Society. In 1852 he was elected fellow of the Geological Society of London, and in 1857 fellow of the Royal Society. His splendid collection of recent and fossil brachiopods, together with his books, he presented to the National Museum at South Kensington.