Austin Hobart Clark

Austin Hobart Clark (December 17, 1880 in Wellesley, Massachusetts – October 28, 1954 in Washington, D.C.) was an American zoologist who studied oceanography, marine biology, ornithology and entomology.

Clark had important and various roles in a number of learned societies: he was president of the Entomological Society of Washington, vice president of the American Geophysical Union, and directed the press service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Several animal species and genera were first scientifically described by Clark, including the Lesser Antillean macaw (1905), the Martinique parrot (1905), the Dominican green-and-yellow macaw (1908), the mulga parrot (1910), the crustacean genus Laomenes (1919) or the starfish species Copidaster lymani (1948).

[1] His theory challenged the single tree view of evolution, according to Clark the major types of life forms on Earth evolved separately and independently from all the others.

[2] Clark wrote that "the seemingly simultaneous appearance of all the phyla or major groups of animals simply means that life at its very first beginnings developed at once and simultaneously from the primitive single cell in every possible direction, giving rise to some original form or forms in every phylum."