The Life of Cyril Crossland: Naturalist, Taxonomist and Explorer of the Coral Seas

The first fully documented and critical assessment of the life of Cyril Crossland (1878-1943) and his contributions to early twentieth century marine science. Crossland became a formidable taxonomist, discovering over one hundred new species, with two genera and sixty species bearing the epithet ‘crosslandi’. He produced a remarkable series of monographs, including descriptions of corals collected by Peter Forsskål on the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia (1762), corals from the Natal cool water coast, South Africa and, when every previous taxonomic effort had failed, corals collected on the Great Barrier Reef Expedition (1928-29). Complementary achievements encompassed Pacific coral ecology, the establishment of two marine biological stations in Sudan and Egypt, and the first successful commercial cultivation of pearl shell. We supplement this life story with three unpublished Crossland manuscripts held by the Natural History Museum, London, including a unique account of travels through Palestine under the British Mandate in 1922.