William Gabb

William More Gabb (January 16, 1839 – May 30, 1878) was an American paleontologist.

Gabb was born and educated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the leading center of American science at the time. He graduated from Jefferson Grammar School at age thirteen and was admitted to the prestigious Central High School of Philadelphia. He distinguished himself in his studies and showed an interest in natural history, conchology and geology. He graduated in 1857 with a bachelor of arts degree.

Gabb chose to pursue a career in geology and sought the assistance of the notable geologist, James Hall in Albany, New York. For a time he became Hall’s student and assistant before returning to Philadelphia in 1860. There he became an active member of the Academy of Natural Sciences and then briefly joined a group of young scientists studying at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C .

In 1861, Josiah Whitney, chief of the California Geological Survey, was searching for a qualified paleontologist to assist with the survey. After much inquiry, Gabb was recommended as the best authority in American Cretaceous paleontology and in 1862 he was appointed paleontologist to the survey. William H. Brewer, who led the field work for Whitney, described Gabb as “young, grassy green, but decidedly smart and well posted in his department--he will develop well with the hard knocks of camp.”

For the next several years Gabb did extensive work throughout California and beyond. In addition to field work, he classified the survey’s Cretaceous and Tertiary fossils and documented his findings in the survey reports, writing on paleontology in the first and second volumes of the Geological Survey of California (1864).

In 1863 he was sent to investigate the Cretaceous rocks of Oregon, Washington Territory and Vancouver Island, Canada. In 1864 he explored northern California and southeastern Oregon. The following year, 1865, was spent mainly in cataloging and describing the fossils collected by the survey. In 1866 he explored the Coast Ranges and in 1867 explored the White Mountains along the border between California and Nevada.

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