John Campbell Merriam (October 20, 1869 – October 30, 1945) was an Americanpaleontologist,educator, andconservationist. The firstvertebrate paleontologist on the West Coast of the United States, he is best known for histaxonomy of vertebratefossils at theLa Brea Tar Pits inLos Angeles, particularly with the genusSmilodon, more commonly known as the sabertooth cat. He is also known for his work to extend the reach of the National Park Service.

John C. Merriam
Born	(1869-10-20)October 20, 1869 Hopkinton, Iowa, US
Died	30 October 1945(1945-10-30) (aged 76) Oakland, California, US
Alma mater	Lenox College University of California, Berkeley University of Munich
Scientific career
Fields	Paleontology,Education
Institutions	Carnegie Institution of Washington National Academy of Sciences Smithsonian Institution
Doctoral students	William J. Sinclair

He was born inHopkinton, Iowa, the eldest child of postmaster, store proprietor, andAmerican Civil War veteran Charles E. Merriam. His middle name Campbell was his mother's middle name, and the maiden name of his maternal grandmother.

Both his father Charles E. Merriam and his paternal uncle Henry C. Merriam had served as officers in the 12th Iowa Infantry, Company K; after capture at theBattle of Shiloh, they were sent toLibby Prison for some time before being returned to the battlefields. Eventually, when the two brothers were mustered out, they returned to Iowa, married, and raised families.As a young man, he began collectingPaleozoicinvertebrate fossils near hisIowa home. He received a bachelor's degree fromLenox College inHopkinton, Iowa, his father'salma mater, then went to theUniversity of California to studygeology andbotany underJoseph Le Conte. He later went toMunich,Germany, to study under the famous paleontologistKarl von Zittel. In 1894 he returned to the U.S. and joined the faculty at the University of California, teaching and performing research in both vertebrate and invertebratepaleontology.

In 1901 one of his lectures on paleontology inspired the youngAnnie Montague Alexander, who financed and took part in his expedition that year toFossil Lake inOregon. Alexander, who went on to a lifelong career as a paleontological benefactress, financed his subsequent expeditions toMount Shasta in 1902 and 1903, as well as his famous 1905Saurian Expedition to theWest Humboldt Range inNevada. During this expedition Merriam unearthed 25 specimens ofichthyosaur, many of them considered the finest ever found.

In 1903 he was recognized as an Associate Member of theBoone and Crockett Club, a wildlife conservation organization founded in 1887 byTheodore Roosevelt andGeorge Bird Grinnell.^[1]

In 1912 he was appointed chairman of the Department of Paleontology at the University of California. That same year he began his famous studies of vertebrates at the La Brea Tar Pits. He and his students categorized many of the vertebrate fossils found at the site, and many more were placed in storage.^[2] The smilodon was later established as the Californiastate fossil.

In 1914, Merriam was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.^[3]

In 1918, he was elected to the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences.^[4] That same year, he co-founded theSave the Redwoods League, which began significant preservation efforts after Merriam traveled the Redwood areas ofHumboldt County, California in 1922 seeking to spare its old-growth the effects of logging he witnessed in Redwood forests closer to San Francisco. A biography, which details his efforts to preserve wild lands in California and throughout the United States, was published in 2005.^[5]

In 1919, Merriam served as president of theGeological Society of America.^[6][7]

In 1920 he was appointed Dean of Faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, but he left that same year to become president of theCarnegie Institution inWashington, D.C. His departure caused the university to combine the Paleontology Department with theGeology Department, angering Merriam's benefactress, Annie Alexander, who subsequently founded and endowed the university'sMuseum of Paleontology. As the head of Carnegie Institution, Merriam's administrative duties led to a reduction in his research for the rest of his career. He accomplishments as president included helping to advance the educational programs of theNational Park Service, as well as helping to preserve theCalifornia redwoods. He was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1921.^[8] His published papers are collected in a four-volume set published in 1938 by the Carnegie Institution.^[9]

Merriam was a founding member of theGalton Institute and a cautious political supporter ofeugenics.^[10]

Notably, his paternal first cousinFrank Merriam, the eldest child of Civil War veteran Henry C. Merriam, served as the 28th Governor of California between 1934 and 1939.

Bachelor of Science,Lenox College, 1887.PhD,University of Munich, 1893.

ScD,Columbia University, 1921.ScD,Princeton University, 1922.ScD,Yale University, 1922.LLD,Wesleyan University, 1922.PHD,University of California, 1924.LLD,New York University, 1926.LLD,University of Michigan, 1933.LLD,Harvard University in 1935.ScD,University of Pennsylvania, 1936.ScD,State University of New York, 1937.LLD,George Washington University, 1937.ScD,Oregon State College, 1939.LLD,University of Oregon, 1939.^[11]

• Category:Taxa named by John Campbell Merriam

• UCSB: John Campbell MerriamArchived 2013-05-16 at theWayback Machine
• UCMP: John C. Merriam
• Guide to the John Campbell Merriam Papers atThe Bancroft Library
• National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
• Concise biography of John Campbell Merriam