Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (1858-1929)

Namesake of: Thomas’ langur (Presbytis thomasi)

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- British naturalist and taxonomist who worked at the British Museum of Natural History

- Described more than 100 mammalian species and multiple genera.

- Mostly worked in London and paid collectors to send him specimens, but also did fieldwork in Western Europe and South America.

"Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time.

In 1891, Thomas married Mary Kane, daughter of Sir Andrew Clark, heiress to a small fortune, which gave him the finances to hire mammal collectors and present their specimens to the museum.

Thomas viewed his taxonomy efforts from the scope of British imperialism. "You and I in our scientific lives have seen the general knowledge of Mammals of the world wonderfully advanced – there are few or no blank areas anymore," he said in a letter to Gerrit Smith Miller."