Hrdlička, Ales (1869–1943)

Bohemian-born US physical anthropologist who went to the USA in 1882. His extensive anatomical research – specifically, comparative studies of bodily and skeletal measurements of living and dead populations – led to his being one of the first to argue that North and South American Indians derived from a racial stock that originated in Asia and migrated to the Americas across the Bering Strait. But for decades he used his authority and reputation to oppose all evidence that the first Americans had come over before about 4,000 years ago.

He was born in Humpolec. After earning two MD degrees in 1892 and 1894 he was on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History, New York 1899–1903 and was at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC 1903–43, being curator from 1910.