Edwin Bayer Branson

Edwin Bayer Branson (May 11, 1877 – March 12, 1950) was an American geologist and paleontologist. He was a professor of geology at the University of Missouri for 37 years.

Biography

Branson was born in Belleville, Kansas, one of six children of John McDowell Branson and Harriet Melviney Bullen. He married Grace Muriel Colton in 1905 in Massachusetts. They had two sons, Carl Colton Branson and Edwin Robert Branson, both of whom became geologists.

From 1895–99, he taught in public schools in Powhattan, Kansas. It was named for him when he retired in 1947.

Branson served as vice president of the Paleontological Society of America. He was also a fellow and member of multiple academic societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society of America, the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the Missouri Academy of Sciences.

In 1931, he and Maurice Mehl described the extinct genus of heterostracan agnathan Cardipeltis in the Jefferson Formation of Utah.

In 1932, Branson and Mehl reported the presence of Carboniferous-aged fossil footprints of a new ichnospecies in the Tensleep Formation of Wyoming. They named the tracks Steganoposaurus belli and attributed them to an amphibian nearly three feet in length.

The same year, he and Mehl named a new kind of Late Triassic dinosaur footprint discovered in the Popo Agie Formation of western Wyoming. The new ichnogenus and species was named Agialopus wyomingensis.

In 1933, also with Mehl, he described the conodont species Wurmiella excavata.

In 1934, with Mehl, he described the conodont genera Pseudopolygnathus and Ancyrognathus.

In 1938, with Mehl, he reviewed the conodont genus Icriodus.

In 1941, he and Mehl described several conodont genera: Bactrognathus, Doliognathus, Scaliognathus, Staurognathus and Taphrognathus. Also in 1941, with C.C. Branson, he reviewed the geology of the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming.

In 1944, he described with Mehl the conodont genus Siphonodella.

In 1947, with his son Carl Colton Branson, he reviewed the Lower Silurian conodonts from Kentucky.

In 1951, with Mehl and C.C. Branson, he published an article about the Richmond Group conodonts of Kentucky and Indiana.