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Keith Holmes (palaeobotanist)
Encyclopedia
William Brian Keith Holmes is a renowned Australian palaeobotanist, best known for his work "Fructifications of Glossopteris
Glossopteris
Glossopteris is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales ....
" (1974), published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales
Linnean Society of New South Wales
The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. It succeeded the Entomological Society of New South Wales, founded in 1862 and folded in...
. Despite having received no formal training in palaeontology, he has become an important contributor in the field and has described some 80 new species, mostly from 2 quarries at Nymboida in northern New South Wales, and situated on the Triassic
Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...
.
Biography
Born 5 March 1933 in PenrithPenrith, New South Wales
Penrith is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Penrith is located west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Penrith...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the second of four children of William Henry Maitland Holmes, a farmer from Berowra
Berowra, New South Wales
Berowra is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Berowra is located 38 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Hornsby Shire...
, and Ethel Vea Jay from Bellingen
Bellingen, New South Wales
Bellingen is a small town on Waterfall Way on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It is approximately halfway between the major Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane...
, Keith Holmes started his schooling at Berowra Primary School where he fell under the influence of a Mr. Dawson who instilled in him a lasting interest in natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
. At Homebush Boys High School he was inspired by the principal, Dr. Watson, who had been to Antarctica as a geologist. On leaving high school he joined the CSIRO for a year and attended night school courses in chemistry at the University of Technology in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. From here he joined the family dairy farm at Berowra and moved with it to Raleigh, New South Wales in 1952. In 1958 he went to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and visited Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
under the Young Farmers Exchange program.
From the 1960s Holmes had been collecting fossils from every site in Australia that he had been able to access, and particularly Glossopteris specimens from the Dunedoo formation in the western part of the Sydney Basin
Sydney Basin
The Sydney Basin is a sedimentary basin on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia consisting of Permian and Triassic sedimentary rocks...
. When his farming operations moved to Wellington
Wellington, New South Wales
Wellington is a town in inland New South Wales, Australia located at the junction of the Macquarie and Bell Rivers. The town is the administrative centre of the Wellington Shire Local Government Area. The town is 362 kilometres from Sydney on the Great Western Highway and Mitchell Highway...
in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
to start a beef herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, he finally managed to put together his first paper for publication. The South African palaeobotanist, Dr. Edna P. Plumstead
Edna P. Plumstead
Edna Pauline Plumstead was a South African palaeobotanist, of the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg...
of the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research
Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research
The Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research is part of the School of Geosciences in the Faculty of Science of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa...
, who had focused world attention on the glossopterids of the Permian
Permian
The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian...
and Triassic
Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...
as supporting evidence for continental drift, acted as referee for this first paper - Holmes had met Dr. Plumstead at the Conference on Stratigraphy and Palaeontology in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
in I973.
In 1980 Holmes became an Honorary Research Fellow in the Geology Department of the University of New England
University of New England, Australia
The University of New England is an Australian public university with approximately 18,000 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern New South Wales....
in Armidale and worked on the taxonomy of the Middle Triassic
Middle Triassic
In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided. It spans the time between 245 ± 1.5 Ma and 228 ± 2 Ma...
Nymboida Flora. His collection of approximately 3 000 specimens, supplemented by those of Gould, Flint and Retallack, is one of the most comprehensive Gondwana
Gondwana
In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...
n Triassic floras, and is preserved in the Australian Museum
Australian Museum
The Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology...
. Parts 1-7 of the Nymboida Flora have been published, as well as papers dealing with early eucalypts from the Tertiary
Tertiary
The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
, cycads and conifers. Holmes enjoyed close relationships with the Australian Museum and his mentor, the former director, Dr. A.B. Walkom
Arthur Bache Walkom
Arthur Bache Walkom was an Australian palaeobotanist and museum director.Walkom was born in Grafton, New South Wales and moved with his family to Sydney where he was educated at Petersham Public and Fort Street Model schools and the University of Sydney graduating with a D.Sc. in 1918...
, as well as Dr. Rod Gould of the University of New England
University of New England, Australia
The University of New England is an Australian public university with approximately 18,000 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern New South Wales....
.
After his wife's death in 1998, Holmes left the management of his farming operations to his daughter 'Netta' and started visiting palaeobotany centres all over the world. In 2005 he was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of New South Wales
Linnean Society of New South Wales
The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. It succeeded the Entomological Society of New South Wales, founded in 1862 and folded in...
. He is an active member of Rotary International
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
and staunch conservationist, having been delegate to the Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales. He was chairman of the Burrendong Arboretum Trust from 1985 to 1995, as well as chairman of the Mount Arthur Reserve Trust near Wellington.
Family
Keith Holmes married Felicity Gowing (1930-1998) from Kempsey, New South WalesKempsey, New South Wales
Kempsey is a town in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia and is the council seat for Kempsey Shire. It is located 15 kilometres inland from the coast of the Pacific Ocean where the Pacific Highway and the North Coast railway line cross the Macleay River...
in 1959, and they had 2 daughters, 'Marnie' Heather Marion born 1962, and 'Netta' Arlene Annette born 1964. He married fellow palaeobotanist Heidi Schwyzer from South Africa in Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
in 2002.