Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr. (March 5, 1873 – March 19, 1912) was an American zoologist who made important contributions to cell biology–especially in chromosomes and their roles in sex determination–as well as the biology of birds and several groups invertebrates, naming many species of ribbon worms, rotifers, and spiders. He studied in Berlin before becoming a researcher and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he primarily worked until his death at the age of 39. In his short career he published 80 scientific papers and two books.
Montgomery was born in New York City on March 5, 1873, to a wealthy Pennsylvania family. His father, Thomas Harrison Montgomery Sr., was a businessman and writer who authored several historical accounts[a] and was president of the Insurance Company of North America from 1882 until his death in 1905. His mother, Anna Morton, was daughter of noted physician and naturalist Samuel George Morton.[1] Thomas Sr. and Anna had nine children–six sons and three daughters–of which Thomas Jr. was the sixth born.[2] His older brother James Alan Montgomery (1866–1949) would become a noted Oriental scholar. At the age of nine, his family moved to the countryside near West Chester, Pennsylvania, where young Thomas soon began collecting field notes and bird specimens, amassing around 250 bird skins by age 15 and 450 by 17. He graduated from the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia in 1889.[1]
In 1889, Montgomery enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied for two years before a summer trip to Europe inspired him to complete his education in Germany, enrolling in the University of Berlin in 1891 and completing a PhD in 1894 at the age of 21. His thesis was primarily supervised by Franz Eilhard Schulze, who worked largely with sponges and other invertebrates.
Montgomery's illustrations of structures in the eggs of Lineus gesserensis, a ribbon worm
Harrison published 25 papers on cell biology, primarily using insect cells. His most notable research includes early observations of the pairing of maternal and paternal chromosomes during cell division. He was first to propose that chromosomes play the dominant role in sex determination,[6] although he rejected the idea that sex was determined by chromosomes alone,[7] and some historians claim he was the first to propose the chromosome theory of inheritance, an idea widely credited to Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri.[8] He also detailed the morphology of the nucleolus, and observed that in some hemipteran insects the germ cells of males but not females contain odd numbers of chromosomes, which is now known to influence sex-determination,[9][10] A resolution of the American Society of Zoologists read after his death stated "it would be impossible to write a text-book upon the role of the chromosomes in the determination of sex without referring to his crucial labors in this field."[11]
Worms, spiders, and other invertebratesedit
Montgomery's earliest papers concerned ribbon worms (phylum Nemertea), a group on which he would write 10 papers. He also published 10 papers on horsehair worms (phylum Nematomorpha) and two on rotifers.[10]
Montgomery wrote 14 scientific articles on spiders, and he was known to keep large amounts in his laboratory and home from which he recorded observations of courtship, mating, and other behaviors. He wrote on the taxonomy of wolf spiders (family Lycosidae), lynx spiders (Oxyopidae), and nursery web spiders (Pisauridae). In a 1909 paper detailing the anatomy and development of various organs in spiders he rejected a prevalent idea at the time that arachnids evolved from Merostomata[b] (a now obsolete group including horseshoe crabs and the extinct eurypterids) adapting to a terrestrial life, and proposed instead that the aquatic lifestyle of horseshoe crabs evolved from terrestrial ancestors.[9][12]
Ornithologyedit
During his youth, Montgomery made an impressive collection of bird specimens from the vicinity of West Chester, Pennsylvania, many of which are now preserved in the ornithology collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.[13] His collection consisted of 145 species collected from 1885 to 1891, and again from 1895 to 1897.[14]
Montgomery is known for proposing the hypothesis that migratory behavior is negatively correlated with rates of evolutionary diversification, now known as "Montgomery's Rule".[15] He published original research on the diet and foraging ecology of Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) and Short-eared Owl (A. flammeus).[16] His book The Protection of Our Native Birds (1906) was an important early contribution to the bird conservation movement.[17]
Other worksedit
Montgomery also published on a variety of other topics including principles of animal classification and larval development of the red-backed salamander.[10][18] His 1908 book, The Analysis of Racial Descent in Animals, described his ideas of classification. He contributed articles to Popular Science Monthly,[c] and also published a memoir of his father in 1905.[19]
Deathedit
Montgomery was stricken with pneumonia on February 15, 1912, and died in a Philadelphia hospital on March 19, only a few days after his thirty-ninth birthday.[9] The day of his death occurred on the opening day of the a celebration commemorating the centennial of Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: his final paper appeared as the first article of its centennial issue.[20]
Notesedit
^see Thomas Harrison Montgomery and A History of the University of Pennsylvania from its Foundation to A. D. 1770 at WikiSource
^The term Paleostraca was used at the time, a grouping which sometimes included trilobites with Merostomata
^Tunis Garret Bergen (1915). "Thomas Harrison Montgomery". Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1080.
^Lillie, Frank R. (February 1988). "The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory". Biological Bulletin. 174: i–284. doi:10.2307/1541719. ISSN 0006-3185. JSTOR 1541719.
^"Montgomery, Thomas Harrison Jr.". The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 15. New York: James T. White & Company. 1916. pp. 216–217.
^Al-Awqati, Qais (2006). "Edmund Beecher Wilson: America's First Cell Biologist". In De Bary, William Theodore (ed.). Living Legacies at Columbia. Columbia University Press. p. 156. ISBN978-0-231-13884-0.
^Capanna, Ernesto (2013). "Chromosomes Yesterday: A Century of Chromosome studies". In Ettore Olmo; Carlo Alberto Redi (eds.). Chromosomes Today. Vol. 13. Birkhäuser. pp. 3–21. ISBN978-3-0348-8484-6.
^ abc"Obituary. Professor Thomas H. Montgomery Jr". Entomological News and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 23: 239–240. 1912.
^Curtis, W. C. (1913). "Thomas Harrison Montgomery". Science. 37 (944): 171. Bibcode:1913Sci....37..171C. doi:10.1126/science.37.944.171. JSTOR 1636942. PMID 17816376.
^Montgomery Jr., Thomas H. (1909). "On the Spinnerets, Cribellum, Colulus, Tracheæ and Lung Books of Araneads". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 61 (2): 299–320. JSTOR 4063286.
^Burns, Frank L. (1919). The ornithology of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Boston: R. G. Badger.
^Montgomery, Thomas H. (1897). "A list of the birds of the vicinity of West Chester, Chester Co., Pennsylvania". American Naturalist. 31: 622–628.
^Montgomery, Thomas H. (June 1896). "Extensive Migration in Birds as a Check Upon the Production of Geographical Varieties". The American Naturalist. 30 (354): 458–464. doi:10.1086/276410. ISSN 0003-0147.
^Montgomery, Thomas H. (July 1899). "Observations on Owls, with Particular Regard to their Feeding Habits". The American Naturalist. 33 (391): 563–572. doi:10.1086/277353. ISSN 0003-0147.
^Montgomery, Thomas Harrison (1906). The Protection of Our Native Birds. University of Texas.
^Thomas H. Montgomery Jr. (1901). "Peculiarities of the Terrestrial Larva of the Urodelous Batrachian, Plethodon cinereus Green". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 53 (2): 503–508.
^Montgomery, Thomas H. (1905). Memoir of Thomas H. Montgomery, Litt. D.: Together with Extracts from His Personal Notes on His Parents. Philadelphia: Harris & Partridge. pp. 1–51.
thomas, harrison, montgomery, march, 1873, march, 1912, american, zoologist, made, important, contributions, cell, biology, especially, chromosomes, their, roles, determination, well, biology, birds, several, groups, invertebrates, naming, many, species, ribbo. Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr March 5 1873 March 19 1912 was an American zoologist who made important contributions to cell biology especially in chromosomes and their roles in sex determination as well as the biology of birds and several groups invertebrates naming many species of ribbon worms rotifers and spiders He studied in Berlin before becoming a researcher and professor at the University of Pennsylvania where he primarily worked until his death at the age of 39 In his short career he published 80 scientific papers and two books Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr Born 1873 03 05 March 5 1873New York City U S DiedMarch 19 1912 1912 03 19 aged 39 Philadelphia Pennsylvania U S NationalityAmericanAlma materUniversity of BerlinKnown forChromosome and cell researchScientific careerFieldsZoology CytologyInstitutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania University of TexasDoctoral advisorFranz Eilhard Schulze Contents 1 Early life and family 2 Career 2 1 Cytology 2 2 Worms spiders and other invertebrates 2 3 Ornithology 2 4 Other works 3 Death 4 Notes 5 References 5 1 Sources 6 External linksEarly life and family editMontgomery was born in New York City on March 5 1873 to a wealthy Pennsylvania family His father Thomas Harrison Montgomery Sr was a businessman and writer who authored several historical accounts a and was president of the Insurance Company of North America from 1882 until his death in 1905 His mother Anna Morton was daughter of noted physician and naturalist Samuel George Morton 1 Thomas Sr and Anna had nine children six sons and three daughters of which Thomas Jr was the sixth born 2 His older brother James Alan Montgomery 1866 1949 would become a noted Oriental scholar At the age of nine his family moved to the countryside near West Chester Pennsylvania where young Thomas soon began collecting field notes and bird specimens amassing around 250 bird skins by age 15 and 450 by 17 He graduated from the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia in 1889 1 In 1889 Montgomery enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania where he studied for two years before a summer trip to Europe inspired him to complete his education in Germany enrolling in the University of Berlin in 1891 and completing a PhD in 1894 at the age of 21 His thesis was primarily supervised by Franz Eilhard Schulze who worked largely with sponges and other invertebrates In 1901 Montgomery married Priscilla Braislin and they had three sons 3 Priscilla Montgomery later worked as librarian of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 4 Career editMontgomery returned to America in early 1895 and spent three years as a researcher at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia During this period he spent consecutive summers working with Alexander Agassiz at his Rhode Island laboratory the University of Pennsylvania marine laboratory at Sea Isle City New Jersey and at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole Massachusetts the latter to which he would return nearly every summer for the rest of his life In 1897 he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania where he worked until 1903 then was professor at the University of Texas from 1903 to 1908 until returning to Pennsylvania where he worked as head of the zoology department until his death in 1912 He was a member of the American Society of Zoologists president in 1910 American Association for the Advancement of Science American Society of Naturalists American Philosophical Society Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Texas Academy of Science president in 1905 5 He was co editor of the Journal of Morphology from 1908 to 1912 Cytology edit nbsp Montgomery s illustrations of structures in the eggs of Lineus gesserensis a ribbon wormHarrison published 25 papers on cell biology primarily using insect cells His most notable research includes early observations of the pairing of maternal and paternal chromosomes during cell division He was first to propose that chromosomes play the dominant role in sex determination 6 although he rejected the idea that sex was determined by chromosomes alone 7 and some historians claim he was the first to propose the chromosome theory of inheritance an idea widely credited to Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri 8 He also detailed the morphology of the nucleolus and observed that in some hemipteran insects the germ cells of males but not females contain odd numbers of chromosomes which is now known to influence sex determination 9 10 A resolution of the American Society of Zoologists read after his death stated it would be impossible to write a text book upon the role of the chromosomes in the determination of sex without referring to his crucial labors in this field 11 Worms spiders and other invertebrates edit Montgomery s earliest papers concerned ribbon worms phylum Nemertea a group on which he would write 10 papers He also published 10 papers on horsehair worms phylum Nematomorpha and two on rotifers 10 Montgomery wrote 14 scientific articles on spiders and he was known to keep large amounts in his laboratory and home from which he recorded observations of courtship mating and other behaviors He wrote on the taxonomy of wolf spiders family Lycosidae lynx spiders Oxyopidae and nursery web spiders Pisauridae In a 1909 paper detailing the anatomy and development of various organs in spiders he rejected a prevalent idea at the time that arachnids evolved from Merostomata b a now obsolete group including horseshoe crabs and the extinct eurypterids adapting to a terrestrial life and proposed instead that the aquatic lifestyle of horseshoe crabs evolved from terrestrial ancestors 9 12 Ornithology edit During his youth Montgomery made an impressive collection of bird specimens from the vicinity of West Chester Pennsylvania many of which are now preserved in the ornithology collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University 13 His collection consisted of 145 species collected from 1885 to 1891 and again from 1895 to 1897 14 Montgomery is known for proposing the hypothesis that migratory behavior is negatively correlated with rates of evolutionary diversification now known as Montgomery s Rule 15 He published original research on the diet and foraging ecology of Long eared Owl Asio otus and Short eared Owl A flammeus 16 His book The Protection of Our Native Birds 1906 was an important early contribution to the bird conservation movement 17 Other works edit Montgomery also published on a variety of other topics including principles of animal classification and larval development of the red backed salamander 10 18 His 1908 book The Analysis of Racial Descent in Animals described his ideas of classification He contributed articles to Popular Science Monthly c and also published a memoir of his father in 1905 19 Death editMontgomery was stricken with pneumonia on February 15 1912 and died in a Philadelphia hospital on March 19 only a few days after his thirty ninth birthday 9 The day of his death occurred on the opening day of the a celebration commemorating the centennial of Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia his final paper appeared as the first article of its centennial issue 20 Notes edit see Thomas Harrison Montgomery and A History of the University of Pennsylvania from its Foundation to A D 1770 at WikiSource The term Paleostraca was used at the time a grouping which sometimes included trilobites with Merostomata see Wikisource Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr References edit a b Conklin 1913 pp 207 208 Tunis Garret Bergen 1915 Thomas Harrison Montgomery Genealogies of the State of New York A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation Lewis Historical Publishing Company p 1080 Conklin 1913 p 213 Lillie Frank R February 1988 The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory Biological Bulletin 174 i 284 doi 10 2307 1541719 ISSN 0006 3185 JSTOR 1541719 Montgomery Thomas Harrison Jr The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography Vol 15 New York James T White amp Company 1916 pp 216 217 Al Awqati Qais 2006 Edmund Beecher Wilson America s First Cell Biologist In De Bary William Theodore ed Living Legacies at Columbia Columbia University Press p 156 ISBN 978 0 231 13884 0 Richardson Sarah S 2013 Sex Itself The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome University of Chicago Press pp 45 51 ISBN 978 0 226 08471 8 Capanna Ernesto 2013 Chromosomes Yesterday A Century of Chromosome studies In Ettore Olmo Carlo Alberto Redi eds Chromosomes Today Vol 13 Birkhauser pp 3 21 ISBN 978 3 0348 8484 6 a b c Obituary Professor Thomas H Montgomery Jr Entomological News and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 23 239 240 1912 a b c Conklin 1913 pp 210 211 Curtis W C 1913 Thomas Harrison Montgomery Science 37 944 171 Bibcode 1913Sci 37 171C doi 10 1126 science 37 944 171 JSTOR 1636942 PMID 17816376 Montgomery Jr Thomas H 1909 On the Spinnerets Cribellum Colulus Tracheae and Lung Books of Araneads Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 61 2 299 320 JSTOR 4063286 Burns Frank L 1919 The ornithology of Chester County Pennsylvania Boston R G Badger Montgomery Thomas H 1897 A list of the birds of the vicinity of West Chester Chester Co Pennsylvania American Naturalist 31 622 628 Montgomery Thomas H June 1896 Extensive Migration in Birds as a Check Upon the Production of Geographical Varieties The American Naturalist 30 354 458 464 doi 10 1086 276410 ISSN 0003 0147 Montgomery Thomas H July 1899 Observations on Owls with Particular Regard to their Feeding Habits The American Naturalist 33 391 563 572 doi 10 1086 277353 ISSN 0003 0147 Montgomery Thomas Harrison 1906 The Protection of Our Native Birds University of Texas Thomas H Montgomery Jr 1901 Peculiarities of the Terrestrial Larva of the Urodelous Batrachian Plethodon cinereus Green Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 53 2 503 508 Montgomery Thomas H 1905 Memoir of Thomas H Montgomery Litt D Together with Extracts from His Personal Notes on His Parents Philadelphia Harris amp Partridge pp 1 51 Conklin 1913 pp 212 213 Sources edit Conklin Edwin G 1913 Professor Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr Science New Series 38 972 207 214 Bibcode 1913Sci 38 207C doi 10 1126 science 38 972 207 JSTOR 1641225 PMID 17842638 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr nbsp Works by or about Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr at Wikisource Works by or about Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr at Internet ArchivePortals nbsp Biography nbsp Biology nbsp Animals nbsp Philadelphia Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr amp oldid 1153358703, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
