George Crawford Hyndman

George Crawford Hyndman (1796–1867) was an Irish auctioneer and amateur biologist.

Hyndman from Belfast was deeply involved in all aspects of Irish natural history but was mainly interested in marine zoology and marine botany (particularly molluscs and algae). His specimens of both groups may now be found in the Ulster Museum the algae in the Herbarium. In his early years Hyndman formed an insect collection (now in the same repository).

Hyndman's insect diary

Dredging for marine animals in 1849

Hyndman was a member of the Belfast Dredging Committee (other members were George Dickie, Edward Waller and John Gwyn Jeffreys). This operated from 1857–1859, under grants from the British Association for the Advancement of Science. William Thompson described Panningia hyndmani, a hermit crab for him as the discoverer in Belfast Lough.

He was also a founder member of the Belfast Natural History Society and contributed to S.A.Stewart and T.H.Corry's Flora of the North-east.

Anapagurus hyndmanni (Bell, 1845) as well as A. laevis and Pagurus cuanensis were also discovered by Hyndman at Portaferry (and Bangor) and named by Thompson (q.v.) without formal descriptions.

Other hermit crab species named for Hyndman were:

• Escharina hyndmanni (Johnson, 1847)
• Iophon hyndmani (Bowerbank, 1858)
• Pseudione hyndmanni (Bate & Westwood, 1868).

The Ulster Museum has an 1854-62 archive of George Crawford Hyndman containing 20 letters from Francis Archer, Edward Benn, J. Bristow, Edward Charlesworth(1813–93) an English naturalist and palaeontologist), A. Crawford, Robert Damon (1814-1889) Dorset geologist and dealer in fossils), George Dickie, Edmund Getty, John Gwyn Jeffreys, William Molony, R. W. Hincks, J. Morpan, Robert Patterson, Edward Waller (1803-1873) Irish land owner owner of a yacht used for dredgings) and Charles Ward.

Works[]

• 1853 Notes on the natural history of Tory Island. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 1: 34-37.
• 1857 Note on a curious monstrosity of the common shell (Fusus antiquus). Nat. Hist. : 250.
• 1858 Report of the Proceedings of the Belfast Dredging Committee. Report for the British Association for the Advancement of Science : 220-237 [1]
• 1859 Report of the Belfast Dredging Committee. Report for the British Association for the Advancement of Science : 282-293 [2]
• 1860 Report of the Belfast Dredging Committee for 1859. Report for the British Association for the Advancement of Science : 116-119 [3] (Committee joined by Charles Wyville Thomson.

Most of Hyndman's discoveries are published with attribution in Thompson, William (edited by Patterson, R.) The Natural History of Ireland Volume 4: Mammalia, reptiles and fishes. Also, invertebrata. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1856

References[]

• Chesney, H.C.G. 1995 Ireland's pioneering malacologists - from dredging to drummondi. Arch. Nat. Hist. 22: 229-239
• Foster, J. W. and Chesney, H. C. G (eds.), 1977: Nature in Ireland: A Scientific and Cultural History. Lilliput Press. ISBN 0-7735-1817-7.

External links[]

• About Ireland^{[permanent dead link]} pdfs of The Natural History of Ireland