Frederick Chapman

Frederick Chapman (13 February 1864 – 10 December 1943) was an English-born Australian palaeontologist. He was the inaugural Commonwealth palaeontologist in Australia, and a world authority on Foraminifera.

Early life and education Frederick Chapman was born in Camden Town, London, England, on 13 February 1864. He was the son of surgical instrument-maker Robert Chapman and his wife Eleanor (née Dinsey).

He studied at and qualified as a teacher of geology and physiography from the Royal College of Science in London, where he was from 1881 an assistant to John Wesley Judd.

Selected books (1902) The Foraminifera. An Introduction to the Study of the Protozoa. London. (His most important work, and the only work of its type until 1928. ) (1914) Australian Fossils. Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, and London. Project Gutenberg eBook 59074 (1934) Book of Fossils. London and Sydney.

Selected papers Chapman F. (1905). "On some Foraminifera and Ostracoda obtained off Great Barrier Island, New Zealand". Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 38, 77-112. Chapman F. (1911). "New or Little Known Victorian Fossils in the National Museum." Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, Melbourne 23: 305-324. plate 58-61. Chapman F. (1935). "On some Phyllocarids from the Ordovician of Preservation Inlet and Cape Providence, New Zealand". Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 64 105-114. Chapman F. (1935). "Descriptions of Fossil Fish from New Zealand". Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 64 117-121. In this work he described ray-finned fishes new genus Eothyrsites, Eothyrsites holosquamatus, Portheus dunedinensis.