- Ron Scarlett
Ronald Jack Scarlett
MBE (1911–2002) better known as Ron Scarlett was a paleozoologist fromNew Zealand .Scarlett was born at Stoke, near Nelson on
March 22 ,1911 to Walter Andrew Scarlett and Lilian Elsie (née Creswell). He was the oldest child of four brothers and four sisters. His father was an impoverished sawyer and so the family was forced to move around the upper South Island to find work in sawmills. Ron Scarlett attended six primary schools until he began to work at age 14. He had jobs on farms, in a sawmill, as a labourer, as golf greenkeeper, as gardener, as goldminer and later as trucker for a coalmine. After he joined the staff of the Canterbury Museum in 1952 he became one of the most prolific osteologists of New Zealand. Scarlett became notable for his excavations over many decades on several paleontological deposits on New Zealand like Te Aute,Lake Poukawa , or thePyramid Valley swamp where he unearthed and described the fossil remains of a Late Quaternary avifauna including bones of theEyles' Harrier ("Circus eylesi"), theNew Zealand Owlet-nightjar , theScarlett's Duck (which was named byStorrs L. Olson ), and theHodgens' Waterhen . TheScarlett's Shearwater ("Puffinus spelaeus") described in 1994 byRichard N. Holdaway andTrevor H. Worthy is named in his honour too. Ron Scarlett belong to the founders of theNew Zealand Archaeological Association which was established in 1954. He was also a member of theOrnithological Society of New Zealand where he has frequently written contributions for the quarterly scientific journal, "Notornis". In 1996 he was awarded an MBE for his services to science. Scarlett died at age 91 onJuly 9 ,2002 in aChristchurch hospital.Works (selected)
*1972: Bones for the New Zealand Archaeologist
*1979: Birds of a Feather: Osteological and Archaeological Papers from the South Pacific in honour of R.J. Scarlett
*1987: Bird Species Present on the Southwest Coast of Chatham Island in the 16th Century AD
*1990: The Naval Good Shooting Medal, 1903-1914
*1992: Under Hazardous Circumstances : Register of Awards of Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea 1939-1945References
* [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-25945648_ITM Obituary for Ron Scarlett]
* [http://www.scarlett.com.au/Folders/folder2/Scarlett%20Letters%201987.doc Short biography]
* [http://www.notornis.org.nz/free_issues/Notornis_21-1974/Notornis_21_1.pdf Biography]
* [http://www.notornis.org.nz/free_issues/OSNZnews/OSNZnews81_Dec1996.pdf MBE for Ron Scarlett]
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