J. T. (Joseph Thomas) Cunningham

Born in 1859 and died in 1935, Joseph Thomas Cunningham was a British marine biologist and zoologist. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, later worked at the London Hospital Medical College, and was elected a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London in 1903.

Cunningham is especially remembered for his research on flatfish and for his interest in evolutionary theory. He was associated with neo-Lamarckian ideas, arguing about the role of acquired characteristics and heredity at a time when scientists were fiercely debating how species change.

He also wrote extensively for general and specialist readers. His published works include Charles Darwin, Naturalist, The Natural History of the Marketable Marine Fishes of the British Islands, Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom, and Hormones and Heredity, showing the range of his interests from marine life to big biological questions.