Frank M. Carpenter
Frank Morton Carpenter (September 6, 1902 – January 18, 1994) was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He was born in Boston and earned his PhD at Harvard University, writing a thesis on The fossil ants of North America (1929). He served as curator of fossil insects at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology for about 60 years and also taught at the Harvard Extension School.
Carpenter studied Permian fossil insects from Elmo, Kansas, and compared North American fossil insect fauna with ancient insects known from other parts of the world. He was a careful, methodical scientist who used wing venation and mouthparts to determine how fossil insects were related. He authored a Treatise on Insects and helped reduce the number of extinct insect orders from about fifty to nine.
He was elected a fellow of the Entomological Society of America in 1938 and mentored students including E. O. Wilson. Grimaldi and Engel later called him the most influential paleoentomologist of his generation. His work has been honored with several species named after him, such as Bittacus carpenteri, Carpenteriana tumida, Fibla carpenteri, Protrechina carpenteri, and Rhyacophila carpenteri.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:50 (CET).