# Delbert Dwight Davis

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American comparative anatomist and museum curator

**Delbert Dwight Davis** (30 December 1908 – 6 February 1965), usually mentioned in literature as **D. Dwight Davis**, was an American comparative anatomist and curator of zoology at the [Chicago Natural History Museum](/source/Field_Museum_of_Natural_History).

Davis was born in [Rockford, Illinois](/source/Rockford%2C_Illinois) and was educated at [North Central College](/source/North_Central_College), Naperville. In 1930, he joined the Chicago Natural History Museum as an assistant in osteology under [Wilfred Osgood](/source/Wilfred_Hudson_Osgood). He became a curator of anatomy in 1941. He published on a range of zoological taxa from insects to mammals. He took a special interest in identifying the evolutionary relationships of the giant panda to other mammals using anatomical studies. He took over 25 years on the study and published a comprehensive book on the topic just a couple of months before his death. He visited Borneo in 1950 on a collection expedition and visited Malaya in 1962 where he worked for 9 months at the [University in Kuala Lumpur](/source/National_University_of_Malaysia).[1] Along with Rainer Zangerl, he was involved in translating [Willi Hennig](/source/Willi_Hennig)'s influential work on phylogenetics into English which was published in 1966.[2]

Davis married Charlotte and they had a son, Charles Darwin Davis.[1]

## Works

- Davis DD (1964). ["The Giant Panda: A Morphological Study of Evolutionary Mechanisms"](https://archive.org/details/giantpandamorpho03davi). *Fieldiana: Zoology Memoirs*. **3**: 1–399.

- [Schmidt KP](/source/Karl_Patterson_Schmidt), Davis DD (1941). *Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada*. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 365 pp., 34 plates, 103 figures.

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-obit_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-obit_1-1) Moore, Joseph Curtis (1965). ["D. Dwight Davis: 30 December 1908-6 February 1965"](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fjmammal%2F46.2.371). *Journal of Mammalogy*. **46** (2): 371–372. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1093/jmammal/46.2.371](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fjmammal%2F46.2.371).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Bock, Walter J. (1968). Hennig, Willi; Davis, D. Dwight; Zangerl, Rainer (eds.). ["Phylogenetic Systematics, Cladistics and Evolution"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2406888). *Evolution*. **22** (3): 646–648. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/2406888](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2406888). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0014-3820](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0014-3820). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [2406888](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2406888).

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND WorldCat National United States Netherlands Norway Israel Other IdRef Open Library 2 Yale LUX

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