Mantell was a lanky assemblage of shortcomings-hewas vain, self-absorbed ,priggish ,neglectfulof his family-butnever was there a more devoted amateur paleontologist.

Megalonyxx jeffersonii, an extinct species of plant-eating ground sloth, was named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson, an amateur paleontologist who studied the mammal.

The priest confided in his grandfather that he had been befriended by a Colonel Akabori, an officer in the occupation force and an amateur paleontologist.