BEECHER

beecher, charles emerson (1856-1904), american palaeontologist, was born at dunkirk, new york, on the 9th of october 1856. he graduated at the university of michigan in 1878, and then became assistant to james hall in the state museum at albany. ten years later he was appointed to the charge of the invertebrate fossils in the peabody museum, new haven, under o.c. marsh, whom he succeeded in 1899 as curator. meanwhile in 1889 he received the degree of ph.d. from yale university for his memoir on the _brachiospongidae_, a remarkable group of silurian sponges; later on he did good work among the fossil corals, and other groups, being ultimately regarded as a leading authority on fossil crustacea and brachiopoda; his researches on the development of the brachiopoda, and on the trilobites _triarthrus_ and _trinudeus_, were especially noteworthy. in 1892 he was appointed professor of palaeontology in yale university. he died on the 14th of february 1904. memoir by c. schuchert in _amer. journ. science_, vol. xvii., june 1904 (with portrait and bibliography).