Brian G. Gardiner (biologist)

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Brian George Gardiner PPLS (30 October 1932 - 21 January 2021)[1] was a British palaeontologist and zoologist, specialising in the study of fossil fish (palaeoichthyology).

Early life and education[]

Gardiner was born on 30 October 1932 in Cashes Green, Gloucestershire. He was educated at Marling School, Stroud and then took a first degree in zoology at Imperial College London, where he specialised in entomology. This was followed by a PhD in palaeontology at University College London at which time he was a scientific associate at the Natural History Museum, London.[2]

Academic career[]

Gardiner was appointed an assistant lecturer in palaeontology at Queen Elizabeth College in 1958, and was later made Professor of Palaeontology at the Department of Biology at the same college. Queen Elizabeth College later merged with King's College London (1985). In 1963 he worked on secondment at the University of Alberta, Edmonton.[1][3] In 1969 Gardiner described 7 new genera and species of palaeoniscid fish from Witteberg in South Africa.[4] He was president of the Linnean Society of London 1994–1997, and was later made a Fellow Honoris Causa of the same society.[2] He was an advisor on palaeontology to the Natural History Museum in London.

His research interests were in the anatomy, taxonomy and evolution of fish, particularly actinopterygians, including Devonian palaeoniscids. Two genera of Permian palaeoniscoid fish, Gardinerichthys and Gardinerpiscis, were named in his honour.[5][6]

Gardiner also investigated the celebrated Piltdown Man palaeontological forgery.[7]

Gardiner retired from King's College in 1998.

Marriage and children[]

Gardiner married Elizabeth Jameson in 1961. They had three children; Nicholas, Catherine and Clare.

Death[]

Gardiner died in London on 21 January 2021, aged 88. He was survived by his wife, three children and seven grandchildren.

Selected publications[]

  • Brian George Gardiner, (1966) Catalogue of Canadian fossil fishes, University of Toronto Press.
  • Gardiner, B G (1969). "New palaeoniscoid fish from the Witteberg series of South Africa". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 48: 423–452. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1969.tb00722.x.
  • Gardiner, B G (1982). "Tetrapod classification". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 74: 207–32. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1982.tb01148.x.
  • Brian George Gardiner (1984) Devonian Palaeoniscid Fishes: New Specimens of Mimia and Moythomasia from the Upper Devonian of Western Australia, University of California Press.
  • Gardiner, B G (1984). "The relationship of placoderms". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 4: 379–395. doi:10.1080/02724634.1984.10012017.
  • Gardiner, B G; Miles, R S (1994). "Eubrachythoracid arthrodires from Gogo, Western Australia". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 112: 443–477. doi:10.1006/zjls.1994.1053.

References[]

  1. ^ Richter, M., (2021): The Passing of Prof Brian George Gardiner. Pangaea. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349848388_The_Passing_of_Prof_Brian_George_Gardiner
  2. ^ The Guardian, obituary, published 15 April 2021
  3. ^ Brian George Gardiner (1966) Catalogue of Canadian fossil fishes, University of Toronto Press, preface
  4. ^ Gardiner, B. G. (1969). "New palaeoniscoid fish from the Witteberg series of South Africa - GARDINER - 1969". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 48 (4): 423–452. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1969.tb00722.x.
  5. ^ Paleontological Journal, 2015, Vol. 49, No. 6, pp. 677–678 - C. Romano, I. Kogan, 2015, published in Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal, 2015, No. 6, pp. 111–112.
  6. ^ Heyler, D. 1976. Sur le genre Amblypterus Agassiz (actinoptérygien du Permien inférieur). Bulletin — Societé d’Histoire Naturelle d’Autun 78, pp. 17–37.
  7. ^ Gardiner, B G, (2003) The Piltdown forgery: a re-statement of the case against Hinton, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 139, pp. 315-335
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