Charles Henry Turner: biography of this famous American zoologist

Modern zoology could not be understood without the contributions of authors such as Charles Henry Turner. This researcher is one of the main references in the study of animals as we know it today, having specialized in the field of insects.

Through this biography of Charles H. Turner We will be able to take a tour through his life to know how he was formed, what were the most important events important ones he faced and what were the main contributions he made in his field of knowledge scientific.

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Short biography of Charles H. Turner

Charles Henry Turner was born in 1867 in the city of Cincinnati, state of Ohio, in the United States. It was only two years since the Civil War had ended, so Turner's childhood unfolded in a postwar setting. His mother, Addie Campbell, was a nurse, while his father, Thomas Turner, worked in the local church as a custodian.

The schooling of Charles H. Turner took place at Woodard High School, also giving the closing speech for his promotion. From there he continued his training at the University of Cincinnati, achieving a degree in Biology in 1891.

His thesis, about the neuroanatomical development of the brain in birds, was so important that it was worth publishing an article in the journal Science, one of the most prestigious, being the first African-American person to achieve such an honor.

He worked for a time in the laboratory of that same university and later began his doctorate at Denison, but could not finish it because the program was canceled. He then moved to Clark University, already as a professor, to begin his life as a teacher. In this institution he would go on to chair the science department.

During this time, in addition, Charles H. Turner met his future wife, Lillian Porter Turner, who unfortunately died shortly after, in 1895.

After his passing through this university, he decided to direct his career as a teacher in secondary education, moving to Cleveland, Tennessee, where he was chosen to direct College Hill High School. However, this stage was brief, as he soon left that job in order to obtain a professorship in Chemistry and Biology in Haines and at the same time continue with the doctorate that he had had to postpone previously.

It was in 1906 when he managed to complete his doctorate, qualifying magna cum laude. He was the first African-American person to earn this degree from the University of Chicago., so his career continued to be that of a pioneer. He right after he married his second wife, Lillian Porter Turner.

He then resumed his profession as a teacher in secondary education, practicing at Summer High School, where he would continue to work until his retirement in 1922. He was forced to retire early due to his poor health. Charles H. Turner died in 1923, due to a heart disease. Since then, his body rests in the Lincoln Cemetery, in the city of Chicago.

Investigations of Charles H. Turner

The career of Charles H. Turner as a researcher was tremendously prolific. He published more than 70 articles, most of them related to invertebrates., the main field of study of him, as a zoologist. In them he studied the behavior of animals such as spiders, wasps, bees or ants, among others. Three of those articles were published in the magazine Science.

Thanks to the studies carried out by Charles H. Turner, today we know such interesting facts as that cockroaches learn through a trial and error system, that insects have the ability to hear and discern between different tones of sound or that bees have the ability to distinguish colors and shapes through their eyes.

The most meritorious thing is that most of these investigations by Charles H. Turner were carried out in parallel to his work as a high school teacher., therefore, without having resources assigned for it or a specific laboratory in which to carry out their experiments with a work team in charge, collaborating with them in the studies. The question to be asked is how far this researcher could have gone if he had had more resources.

His works were so important that he received recognition from different institutions. Numerous American schools, especially in Missouri, have been named after Charles H. Turner as a tribute to the career of this zoologist. Similarly, Clark University, in Atlanta, decided to baptize one of its buildings as Tanner-Turner Hall, as I remember one of the best researchers who walked its corridors.

Author Michal B. Ross, for his part, decided to compile the working methods used by Charles H. Turner in a volume adapted to children in which the little ones are taught different ways of observing the behavior of insects, thus bringing zoology and ethology closer to the youngest, in an appropriate and understandable language for them. The book is titled "Bug Watching with Charles Henry Turner."

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The intentionality of animals

One of the most notable studies of Charles H. Turner was the one dealing with the behavior of snakes. Not surprisingly, he was one of those who managed to publish through the magazine Science, a sample of the repercussion it would have. Turner explains the specific case of observing a snake while trying to hunt down a lark and the type of decisions it makes in order to carry out its objective.

Through this study, published more than 100 years ago, Turner he discovered the intentionality underlying the serpent's behaviorBecause after chasing his prey for a while, without success, he changed his strategy. In this case, the lizard had taken refuge in a tree, and was waiting for the snake to wait below. However, the serpent determined to climb another nearby tree to outrun the lizard and attack from the rear.

Other examples of animal insight he found for example in studies with cockroaches, in which they had to solve a maze test. Charles H. Turner noticed that the younger cockroaches solved the maze faster, but the Older, though slower, they were more precise in selecting the path they should take move along.

Likewise, he studied the case of a wasp that carried prey to its refuge and along the way dodged a series of obstacles that stood in its way. The explanation Turner found for this behavior is that the wasp was deliberately choosing the path that allowed it to avoid all these obstacles. In this way, the researcher took a position opposite to that of Thorndike, a contemporary author, whose explanation is that such behavior was due to a process of trial and error.

Charles supported that thesis with other research; for example, that of an ant that, being trapped on a surface surrounded by water, decided to use a series of materials at his fingertips to form a walkway that would allow him to overcome the moat that surrounded it and thus be able to reach mainland. It is a complex problem whose solution requires reasoning that does not explain the idea of ​​trial and error.

The idea of ​​intentionality in animals, which demonstrated an underlying intelligence, was truly a revolutionary idea for the time.. However, his work did not have the impact it deserved at that time and it took many years for other authors to pick up on his legacy and continue these lines of research.

Other discoveries in zoology in which Charles Henry Turner pioneered were those that had to do with bees and their ability to guide through references. This field is usually assigned to Nikolaas Tinbergen in the 1930s, but Turner had already studied the phenomenon almost three decades before. In this case, she noticed this type of behavior by observing a bee next to a bottle cap, near her honeycomb.

By moving the plug, next to an artificial hole, the bee automatically decided to look for her nest in that new area, so she was making it clear that the stopper was the element that he was using as a reference to return home, beyond following a scent trail or other type of mechanisms.

The list of examples could continue to grow, but with those already mentioned we can get an idea of ​​the impressive work of Charles H. Turner and the tremendous legacy that he has left to this day in zoology and other scientific disciplines, such as biology, psychology or ethology.

Bibliographic references:

• Dewsbury, D.A., Ludy, T. B., Wertheimer, M. (2014). Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology: Volume VI. Psychology Press.
• Galpayage, H.S., Chittka, L. (2020). Charles H. Turner, pioneer in animal cognition. Science.
• Turner, C.H. (1909). The behavior of a snake. Science.
• Turner, C. H. (1892). A Few Characteristics of the Avian Brain. Science.