Biography
Lydekker was born in London, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a first-class in the Natural Science tripos (1872). In 1874 he joined the Geological Survey of India and made studies of the vertebrate paleontology of northern India (especially Kashmir). He remained in this post until 1882. He was responsible for the cataloguing of the fossil mammals, reptiles and birds in the Natural History Museum (10 vols., 1891). His books included:
- A Manual of Palaeontology (with Henry Alleyne Nicholson, 2 vols., 1889),
- Phases of Animal Life (1892)
- The Royal Natural History (with W. H. Flower, 12 vols., 1894-6)
- The Wild Animals of India, Burma, Malaya, and Tibet (1900). He was a contributor to Encyclopædia Britannica's 11th edition.
Lydekker was also influential in the science of biogeography. In 1895 he delineated the biogeographical boundary through Indonesia, known as Lydekker's Line, that separates Wallacea on the west from Australia-New Guinea on the east.
Read more about this topic: Richard Lydekker
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“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)