John Alfred Talent

Talent was born to Alfred George Talent and Thelma Emily (née Henderson) at Ascot Vale, Victoria. He studied science at the University of Melbourne, graduating in science with majors in geology, chemistry and mathematics in 1953 He obtained a PhD in 1959 on the thesis Contributions to the stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Silurian and Devonian of Gippsland. He followed this in 1966 by taking a bachelor of arts degree in 1966 with majors in French and fine arts, and a minor in Arabic. Talent served as president of the International Palaeontological Association in 1999. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1996. == Contributions ==

His interests covered many fossil animal taxa, particularly brachiopods and conodonts. He worked collaboratively with scientists in many other countries, notably Russia, as well as in Australia where his principal collaborator Ruth Mawson and numerous graduate students helped to build a legacy of inter-related publications. Mass extraction of silicified fossils from limestone samples using a specially built facility at Macquarie University provided ample material for these studies. Talent was a long-term contributor to the International Commission on Stratigraphy's Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy, working to align geological time-intervals around the world. == Unmasking the Himalayan fossil hoax ==

Although it had been clear to many Indian palaeontologists that Vishwa Jit Gupta's work on the geology of the Himalayas contained so many implausible statements that it was useless as a basis for subsequent work, the full extent of the anomalies was unclear because it had been assumed that the problems were caused by incompetence. Talent and collaborators worked diligently for several years to catalogue the various types of misrepresentation involved, concluding that deliberate deception by Gupta took many forms, that his body of work was "fictitious". ==Eponymy==

Talent had many species and genera named in his honour, including: Classis: Bivalvia: • Cornellites talenti , 1991 • Notonucula talenti , 1999 Classis: Cephalopoda: • Talenticeras talenti , 1965 • Talenticeras , 1965 Classis Conodonta • Icriodus talenti , 2006 • Polygnathus talenti , 2002 Classis: Gastropoda • Palaeoalvania talenti , 1994 Classis: Pterobranchia • Stelechocladia talenti , 1997 Classis: Trilobita: • Australoscutellum talenti , 2016 • Homalonotus talenti , 2005 • Proteus talenti , 1971 Phylum: Brachiopoda: • Atrypina talenti , 1970 • Molongella talenti , 1974 • Notoconchidium talenti , 2013 • Reticulariopsis talenti , 1985 • Spinella talenti , 1970 • Talentella , 1990 Phylum Arthropoda, Classis Branchiopoda • Cyzicus talenti , 1987 == References ==