Watson, David Meredith Seares (1886-1973)

English embryologist and palaeobiologist who provided the first evidence that mammals evolved from reptiles. From the fossilized remains of primitive reptiles and mammals collected on trips to South Africa and Australia 1911-14, he pieced together the evolutionary line linking reptiles to early mammals.

Watson was born in Higher Broughton, Lancashire. He graduated from Manchester University in chemistry and geology, but began publishing papers on palaeobiology while he was still an undergraduate.

With the outbreak of World War I, he returned to England to join the RAF. From 1921 until his retirement in 1965 he was based at University College, London. In 1952 he was Alexander Agassiz visiting professor at Harvard. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1922, and was awarded the Darwin medal in 1942 and the Linnaeus medal in 1949.