Lawrence Lambe

Lawrence Morris Lambe (1863–1919)^[1] was a Canadian geologist and palaeontologist from the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC).^[2] His published work, describing the diverse and plentiful dinosaur discoveries from the fossil beds in Alberta, did much to bring dinosaurs into the public eye and helped usher in the Golden Age of Dinosaurs in the province. During this period, between the 1880s and World War I, dinosaur hunters from all over the world converged on Alberta. Lambeosaurus, a well-known hadrosaur, was named after him as a tribute, in 1923.^[3]

Education[edit]

Lambe studied at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario from 1880–1883.^[4]

Career[edit]

Lambe's work in western Canada began in 1897. He discovered a number of new dinosaur genera and species over the next few years, and spent much of his time preparing the fossil galleries of the GSC's museum.^[5] In 1902, he described Canada's first dinosaur finds, various species of Monoclonius. He described Centrosaurus in 1904. Euoplocephalus was named by him, in 1910. In 1913, he named Styracosaurus. He was responsible for naming Chasmosaurus and Gorgosaurus, in 1914 and Eoceratops in 1915. In 1917, he created the genus Edmontosaurus. In 1919 came Panoplosaurus. He also discovered and named the hadrosaurid Gryposaurus. ^[6]

Inevitably, it was not only dinosaurs that Lambe discovered. The crocodilian Leidysuchus canadensis was described in 1907. This is the most commonly found crocodilian species found in the Late Cretaceous deposits of Alberta. He also studied Devonian fishes from New Brunswick and Paleozoic corals, collected Tertiary insects and plants in British Columbia but it is for his work on vertebrates from western Canada, especially dinosaurs, that he is most famous.

Books[edit]

• Lawrence Lambe 'Album of 632 paleontological drawings' (1885–1891), From The Logan Collection, Geological Survey of Canada (1891)^[7]
• Lawrence Morris Lambe `Collected papers` eBook - Digitized from 1901 volume
• Lawrence Morris Lambe ‘On Trionyx Foveatus, Lediy, And Trionyx, Vagans, Cope, From The Cretaceous Rocks Of Alberta’ (1902); published in 2008 by Kessinger Publishing, LLC.
• Lawrence Morris Lambe ‘Sponges From The Western Coast Of North America’ (1894); published in 2008 by Kessinger Publishing, LLC.
• Lawrence Morris Lambe ‘Presidential address: The past vertebrate life of Canada’ (1912) by Royal Society of Canada; published in 2008 by Kessinger Publishing, LLC.
• Lawrence Morris Lambe 'Description of a new species of Platysomus from the neighborhood of Banff, Alta' (1914) by Royal Society of Canada; published in 2008 by Kessinger Publishing, LLC.
• Lawrence Morris Lambe 'On new species of Aspideretes from the Belly River formation of Alberta: With further information regarding the structure of the carapace of Boremys pulchra' (1914) published in 2008 by Kessinger Publishing, LLC.

Honours[edit]

Lambe Island, Algoma District, Ontario, Canada was named in honour of Mr. Lawrence M. Lambe (RMC 1880-1883), Invertebrate Palaeontologist, Geological Survey. 46o 19' 49" North 83o 54' 25" West ^[4] In 1923, the new Hadrosaurian genus Lambeosaurus was also named after Lawrence Lambe.

Notes[edit]

External links[edit]

• Impression of Lambe's 'slothful Gorgosaurus' drawn by John Sibbick
• Works by or about Lawrence Lambe at Internet Archive