Leidy, Joseph (1823–1891)

US zoologist and palaeontologist. A scientist of unusual range, Leidy published a classic anatomical text and important works on parasitology and protozoa. In addition he is regarded, along with Edward Drinker Cope and O C Marsh, as one of the pioneers of US vertebrate palaeontology. Dismayed by his colleagues' contentiousness, however, he abandoned that field after publishing his major work, The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska (1869). Leidy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a trained medical doctor and professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania (1853–91).