Ramsay Heatley Traquair FRSE FRS (30 July 1840 – 22 November 1912) was a Scottish naturalist and palaeontologist who became a leading expert on fossil fish. Traquair trained as a medical doctor, but his thesis was on aspects of fish anatomy. He held posts as Professor of Natural History and Professor of Zoology in England and Ireland, before returning to his native Edinburgh to take up a post at the Museum of Science and Art. He spent the rest of his career there, building up a renowned collection of fossil fish over a period of more than three decades. He published extensively on palaeoichthyology, authoring many papers and a series of monographs. His studies of rocks and fossils in Scotland overturned earlier work on fossil fish, establishing new taxonomic classifications. His honours included fellowships from a range of learned societies, including the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of London, and the Geological Society of London. Among his awards for his work on fossil fish are the Lyell Medal and the Royal Medal. Early life Ramsay Heatley Traquair was born on 30 July 1840 in the manse at Rhynd, Perthshire, Scotland. His father, Rev James Traquair, was a Church of Scotland clergyman originally from Lasswade and his mother was Elizabeth Mary Bayley (1800-1843). The family moved to 10 Duncan Street in south Edinburgh when the elder Traquair retired soon after the birth of Ramsay, his eighth and last child. Ramsay's mother, Elizabeth, died in 1843. Preparatory school education for the young Traquair was followed by schooling at the Edinburgh Institution. From 1857, he studied medicine and later fish anatomy at Edinburgh University, graduating with his medical degree after five years in August 1862. He was presented with a gold medal for his MD thesis on flatfish, on the "Asymmetry of the Pleuronectidae". The anatomists he studied and worked with at Edinburgh included John Goodsir and William Turner. Career Traquair initially stayed on at the University of Edinburgh, working as an anatomy demonstrator in the period from 1863 to 1866. He then succeeded in obtaining a post as Professor of Natural History at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. This appointment included a testimonial from T. H. Huxley, however Traquair's stay at Cirencester was brief as he felt that "this post isolated him from research". Moving to Dublin, Ireland, in 1867, Traquair took up the position of Professor of Zoology