Maurice Mehl

{{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Maurice Goldsmith Mehl | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date |1887|12|25}}  | birth_place = [[Burlingame, Kansas]] | death_date = {{death date and age |1966|03|30|1887|12|25}}  | death_place = [[Columbia, Missouri]] | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = "Doc" Mehl | residence = | citizenship = | fields = Paleontology | workplaces = [[University of Chicago]] [[University of Wisconsin]] [[University of Oklahoma]] [[Denison University]] [[University of Missouri]] | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year = 1914 | doctoral_advisor = [[Samuel Wendell Williston]] | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }} '''Maurice Goldsmith Mehl''' (1887 - 1966) was an American [[paleontologist]] and professor in the geology department at the [[University of Missouri]].

== Life and career ==

Mehl was born on December 25, 1887, to Frank and Rebecca Goldsmith Mehl. After graduation from [[Burlingame High School (Kansas)|Burlingame High School]], he attended the [[University of Chicago]], where he completed a B.S. in 1911 and a Ph.D. in 1914. While at Chicago, he met Lucy Jane Hull and they were married in 1912. At Chicago, Mehl studied vertebrate paleontology under the instruction of prominent paleontologist [[Samuel Wendell Williston]]. He taught at Chicago for a while as well as at [[University of Wisconsin]], [[University of Oklahoma]], and [[Denison University]] before joining the University of Missouri in 1919. In addition to teaching and researching at Missouri until his retirement in 1958, where he was known as "Doc" Mehl, he also worked as a consultant to the Missouri Geological Survey and Water Resources. While at Missouri, he had a long and productive collaboration with his colleague [[Edward Branson]], with whom many discoveries in paleontology were co-authored. Doc was 78 and living in Columbia at the time of his passing and was survived by his wife Lucy, their two children, and three great-grandchildren.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ellison, Jr. |first=Samuel P. |date=1966 |title=Memorial to Maurice Goldsmith Mehl (1887-1966) |url=https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1966)77[P219:MTMGM]2.0.CO;2 |journal=[[GSA Bulletin]] |volume=77 |issue=12 |pages=219–224|doi=10.1130/0016-7606(1966)77[P219:MTMGM]2.0.CO;2 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Discoveries == [[Image:Machaeroprosopus andersoni.jpg|thumb|left|A skull of ''M. andersoni'']] In [[1922 in paleontology|1922]], he named ''[[Machaeroprosopus]] andersoni'', on the basis of the [[holotype]] FMNH UC 396, partial [[skull]]. It was probably collected from the [[Bull Canyon Formation]] of the [[Chinle Group]] or [[Dockum Group]], probably at the [[Bull Canyon, Guadalupe County|Bull Canyon]], in the [[Guadalupe County, New Mexico|Guadalupe County]] of [[New Mexico]]. This taxon was considered to be a [[junior synonym]] of ''M. buceros'' by Long and Murry (1995) and later authors, although Stocker and Butler (2013) treated ''M. andersoni'' as a valid species. The holotype is the only known specimen of this species, although there are other specimens from the Bull Canyon Formation that were referred to ''Arribasuchus buceros'' by Long and Murry (1995), but not by Stocker and Butler (2013).

In [[1929 in paleontology|1929]], he and [[Edward Branson]] described the Metoposauridae ''[[Koskinonodon]]''.<ref>Mueller, B. D. (2007) Koskinonodon Branson and Mehl, 1929, a replacement name for the preoccupied temnospondyl Buettneria Case, 1922. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (1): 225.</ref>

In [[1930 in paleontology|1930]], he described ''[[Amphekepubis]]'', a genus of [[mosasaur]] from the [[Late Cretaceous]] of [[Mexico]]. Their remains correspond to the [[holotype]] specimen UM VP 509 ([[University of Missouri]]), a partial skeleton preserved in three dimensions, comprising the pelvic area, hind limb bones and nine caudal [[vertebra]]e, found in the east of Monterrey, in the state of [[Nuevo Leon]], which come from marine sediments ([[claystone]]s) apparently from the San Felipe Formation, which corresponds to the boundary between the ages of [[Coniacian]] and [[Santonian]] in the early [[Late Cretaceous]].<ref>M. G. Mehl. 1930. A new genus of mosasaurs from Mexico, and notes on the pelvic girdle of ''Platecarpus''. ''Denison University Bulletin, Journal of the Scientific Laboratories'' 29(10):383-400</ref> However, it has been suggested that age may be more recent and its remains even might belong to the genus ''[[Mosasaurus]]''.<ref>Marie-Céline Buchy, Eberhard Frey, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, and José Guadalupe López-Oliva. [https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/572/57224108.pdf Cranial anatomy of a Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) mosasaur (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from north-east Mexico] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120630050046/http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/html/572/57224108/57224108_2.html |date=2012-06-30 }}. ''[[Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas]]'', año/vol. 24, número 001. pp. 89-103</ref><ref>Lingham-Soliar, T., 1995, Anatomy and functional morphology of the largest marine reptile known, ''Mosasaurus hoffmanni'' (Mosasauridae, Reptilia) from the Upper Cretaceous, Upper Maastrichtian of The Netherlands: ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Geology of North America'', Volume J, 205-215. London, B, 347, 155-180.</ref>

In [[1931 in paleontology|1931]], he erected the new ichnogenus ''[[Ignotornis]]'' for some bird tracks preserved in the Dakota Group near [[Golden, Colorado]]. These were the first scientifically documented [[Mesozoic]] bird footprints. The bird in question as interpreted as a "small [[shorebird]] or [[wader]]". The site would eventually be heavily collected and all of its tracks were presumed removed.

In [[1932 in paleontology|1932]], he and Branson reported the presence of Carboniferous-aged fossil footprints of a [[20th century in ichnology|new ichnospecies]] in the [[Tensleep Sandstone|Tensleep Formation]] of [[Paleontology in Wyoming|Wyoming]]. They named the tracks ''[[Steganoposaurus belli]]'' and attributed them to an amphibian nearly three feet in length. Also with Edward Branson, he named a new kind of Late Triassic dinosaur footprint discovered in the [[Popo Agie Formation]] of western Wyoming. The new ichnogenus and species was named ''[[Agialopus wyomingensis]]''.

In [[1933 in paleontology|1933]], he and Branson described the conodont ''[[Wurmiella excavata]]''.

In [[1934 in paleontology|1934]], with [[Edward Branson|Branson]], he described the conodont genera ''[[Pseudopolygnathus]]'' and ''[[Ancyrognathus]]''.<ref>Conodonts from [[Glassy Creek]] Shale of Missouri. EB Branson and MG Mehl, Univ. Missouri Studies, 1934</ref>

In [[1936 in paleontology|1936]], he described the new [[Timeline of ankylosaur research|ankylosaur]] species ''[[Nodosaurus coleii]]''.<ref name="vickaryous-maryanska-weishampel-table-367">Vickaryous, [[Teresa Maryańska|Maryanska]], and Weishampel (2004); "Table 17.1: Ankylosauria", page 367.</ref>

In [[1938 in paleontology|1938]], he and Branson reviewed the conodont genus ''[[Icriodus]]''.<ref>The Conodont Genus Icriodus and Its Stratigraphic Distribution. E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Mar., 1938), pages 156-166 ([https://www.jstor.org/stable/1298727 Stable URL] retrieved 29 April 2016)</ref>

In [[1941 in paleontology|1941]], with Branson, he described the conodont genera ''[[Bactrognathus]]'', ''[[Doliognathus]]'', ''[[Scaliognathus]]'' and ''[[Staurognathus]]''.<ref name=Branson&Mehl1941>New and Little Known Carboniferous Conodont Genera. E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, [[Journal of Paleontology]], Vol. 15, No. 2 (Mar., 1941), pages 97-106 ([https://www.jstor.org/stable/1298937 Stable URL], retrieved 29 April 2015)</ref><ref>Phylogeny of the Multielement Conodont Genera Bactrognathus, Doliognathus and Staurognathus. Karl M. Chauff, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Mar., 1985), pages 299-309 ([https://www.jstor.org/stable/1305029 Stable URL], retrieved 22 April 2016)</ref>

In [[1944 in paleontology|1944]], he described with [[Edward Branson|Branson]] the conodont genus ''[[Siphonodella]]''.<ref>Conodonts. EB Branson and MG Mehl, in HW Shimer and RR Shrock, Index Fossils of North America. 1944</ref>

== Awards and honors ==

Mehl was a fellow of the [[Geological Society of America]] (1922), the [[Paleontological Society]], and the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] (1915).<ref>{{cite web |title=Historic Fellows |url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic |publisher=AAAS |access-date=17 February 2022}}</ref> He was also a founding member and officer of the [[American Association of Petroleum Geologists]].

== References == {{reflist}} * Mehl, Maurice; Toepelmann, W. C.; Schwartz, G. M. (1916). "New or little known reptiles from the Trias of Arizona and New Mexico with notes from the fossil bearing horizons near Wingate, New Mexico". University of Oklahoma Bulletin 103: 1–44

== External links == * {{wikispecies-inline}} * [http://archives.datapages.com/data/bull_memorials/050/050011/pdfs/2484.htm memorial] (retrieved 23 April 2016)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehl, Maurice}} [[Category:American paleontologists]] [[Category:Conodont specialists]] [[Category:1887 births]] [[Category:1966 deaths]] [[Category:Taxa named by Maurice Mehl| ]] [[Category:People from Burlingame, Kansas]] [[Category:20th-century American zoologists]] [[Category:Scientists from Kansas]] [[Category:University of Missouri faculty]]