Charles Schuchert was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 invertebrate

Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

 paleontologist who was a leader in the development of paleogeography, the study of the distribution of lands and seas in the geological past.

Biography

He received a common school education, but, possessing an aptitude for scientific investigation, he early began a collection of fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s and the study of palaeontology. During the 1880s, he made a living drawing fossil illustrations for state geological surveys, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

's for example, and continued to search for specimens for his own growing collection. He was preparator of fossils with Charles E. Beecher

Charles Emerson Beecher

Charles Emerson Beecher was an American Paleontologist most famous for the thorough excavation, preparation and study of trilobite ventral anatomy from specimens collected at Beecher's Trilobite Bed...

 at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 from 1892 to 1893. He served on the United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

 from 1893 to 1894. After serving as curator of the U.S. National Museum

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 from 1894 to 1904, Schuchert joined the Yale faculty, succeeding Beecher, the first invertebrate paleontologist there.

Schuchert coined the term paleobiology

Paleobiology

Paleobiology is a growing and comparatively new discipline which combines the methods and findings of the natural science biology with the methods and findings of the earth science paleontology...

in 1904. In 1934 Schuchert was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal

Mary Clark Thompson Medal

The Mary Clark Thompson Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for most important service to geology and paleontology." Named after Mary Clark Thompson, it was first awarded in 1921.- List of Mary Clark Thompson Medal winners :...

 from the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

.

Works

• Textbook of Geology
• Historical Geological Paleograph of North America
• Revision of Paleozoic Stelleroida, with Special Reference to North American Asteroida (1915)