Christopher J. Durden

Christopher J. Durden. Image from TNSC archives.

Ph.D. Yale University

Joined the Texas Memorial Museum (TMM) in 1968 as Curator of entomology, geology, and paleobiology.

Consolidated TMM and Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) collections in 1974; Department of Geological Sciences (UTDGS) collections in 1984, and Type collection in 1994, moving all to the Pickle Research Campus (formerly Balcones Research Center).

Important contributions to our knowledge of insect extinction patterns in the Permian, and Eocene butterflies*.

Later work was focussed on recent butterflies.

*Durden, C.J., and H. Rose. 1978. Butterflies from the middle Eocene: the earliest occurrence of fossil Papilionidae (Lepidoptera). Pearce-Sellards Ser. Tex. Mem. Mus. 29: 1-25.

………………… 1982. The butterfly fauna of Barton Creek Canyon on the Balcones Fault Zone, Austin, Texas, and a regional list. Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 36(1):1-17.

………………..1990. Guide to butterflies of Austin. Texola 6:1-109.