Henry Alleyne Nicholson FRS FRSE FGS FLS (11 September 1844 – 19 January 1899) was a British palaeontologist and zoologist.

[1] The son of John Nicholson (1809–1886), a biblical scholar, and his wife Annie Elizabeth Waring,[2] he was born at Penrith, Cumberland on 11 September 1844.

He was educated at Appleby Grammar School and then studied Sciences at the universities of Göttingen (Ph.D., 1866) and Edinburgh (D.Sc., 1867; M.D., 1869).

[4] In 1869 he began lecturing in Natural History at the extramural classes linked to Edinburgh University.

During his career he published 167 papers, usually as the sole author, and 12 textbooks, most importantly The Ancient Life History of the Earth.