Joseph Leidy - The Academy of Natural Sciences - Philadelphia, PA - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The fossil jaw of Panthera atrox can be seen in the left hand of the Joseph Leidy statue that stands in front of The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The inscription on the statue says: 1823-1891. The statue was made by Samuel Murray and installed in 1907.

Locally: Known as the "Father of American Vertebrate Paleontology", Leidy described the first relatively complete dinosaur skeleton, Hadrosaurus, and introduced many American and European scientists to the fossil riches of the American West. Leidy's consummate skill in comparative anatomy would allow him to identify and characterize even the most fragmentary fossil material. In Haddonfield, NJ there is a National Historic Site dedicated to Leidy's finding of the first intact dinosaur skeleton.

Leidy was also the "Founder of American Parasitology," a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, a pioneering protozoologists, an influential teacher of Natural History, an accomplished microscopist and scientific illustrator, and an expert on a variety of subjects encompasing the earth and natural sciences. He published scientific papers on more than a thousand extinct and living protozoa, fungi and invertebrates and vertebrates as well as an assortment of publications on human biology and medicine. He was also one of the earliest supporters of Charles Darwin.