{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}} {{Use British English|date=January 2018}} {{Infobox person |name = Robert Damon |image = |caption = |birth_date = 1814 |birth_place = Melcombe Regis, Weymouth, Dorset, England |death_date = 4 May 1889 (aged 75) |death_place = Weymouth, Dorset, England<ref name="times">{{cite news |title=Obituary |work=The Times |page= 10 |date=7 May 1889 }}</ref> |other_names = |known_for = |occupation = Naturalist and geologist }}
'''Robert Damon''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FGS}} (1814 – 4 May 1889) was an English conchologist and geologist.
Damon was at first a hosier and glover but with his son Robert Ferris Damon (1845–1929) he established a dealership in natural history specimens in Weymouth. The company supplied museums throughout North and South America, Australia and Europe with much Dorset geological material from the late 1840s to 1914. In 1860 Damon wrote ''Geology of Weymouth and the Isles of Portland; with Notes on the Natural History of the Coast and Neighbourhood''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Damon |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xyA-AAAAcAAJ&q=Robert+Damon++weymouth |title=Handbook to the Geology of Weymouth and the Island of Portland: With Notes on the Natural History of the Coast & Neighborhood. Accompanied by a Map of the District, Geological Sections, Plates of Fossils, Coast Views, and numerous other Illustrations |date=1860 |publisher=Edward Stanford |location=London |language=en}}</ref> which includes a map of the district, geological sections, plates of fossils, and coast views, in 1884 a second edition with archaeological notes was published.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Damon |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9fo4AAAAMAAJ&q=Robert+Damon++weymouth |title=Geology of Weymouth, Portland, and Coast of Dorsetshire, from Swanage to Bridport-on-the-sea: With Natural History and Archæological Notes |date=1884 |publisher=R.F. Damon |language=en}}</ref> He also wrote (and published himself in 1857) ''A catalogue of the shells of Great Britain and Ireland with their synonyms and authorities''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/8562 |title=By 'Damon, Robert, 1814–1889' |publisher=Biodiversity Heritage Library |accessdate=8 February 2016}}</ref>
Damon died aged 75 at his museum in Weymouth from heart disease.<ref name="times"/>
The species ''Amoria damonii'' Gray, and ''Paramelania damoni'' were named in his honor.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.britishshellclub.org/pages/pallid-past/200610_pallidula.pdf |title=Robert Damon's Shell Collection |last=Dance |first=S. Peter |quote=His name also survives in the scientific names given to several invertebrate species, recent and fossil, including the volute now known as ''Amoria damonii'' Gray, and ''Paramelania damoni'' Smith, a freshwater gastropod from Lake Tanganyika. |journal=Pallidula |volume=36 |number=2 |page=9 |date=October 2006 |accessdate=8 February 2016 |archive-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215025900/http://www.britishshellclub.org/pages/pallid-past/200610_pallidula.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} *H. Crosse & P. Fischer, 1890. "Nécrologie". ''Journal de Conchyliologie'' 38(1): 89-90. *[http://www.doc-txt.com/2,400-Years-of-Malacology.pdf ''2,400 Years of Malacology''] Eugene V. Coan, Alan R. Kabat, Richard E. Petit
==External links== *[http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=1082 The Mineralogical Record]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Damon, Robert}} Category:1814 births Category:1889 deaths Category:English palaeontologists Category:People from Weymouth, Dorset Category:Date of birth missing Category:Fellows of the Geological Society of London
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