John Edward Gray wrote nearly 500 papers, including many descriptions of species new to science. These had been presented to the Museum by collectors from around the world, and included all branches of zoology, although Gray usually left the descriptions of new birds to his younger brother and colleague George. Gray was also active in malacology, the study of molluscs. John Edward Gray was buried at St Mary's Church, Lewisham. Gray was one of the most prolific taxonomists in the history of zoology. He described more than 300 species and subspecies of reptiles, only surpassed by his successors at the British Museum, George
Primatology used in researching extant primates and their extinct ancestors. There are two main centers of primatology, Western primatology and Japanese primatology. These two divergent disciplines stem from their unique cultural backgrounds and philosophies that went into their founding. Although, fundamentally, both Western and Japanese primatology share many of the same principles, the areas of their focus in primate research and their methods of obtaining data differ widely. Western primatology stems primarily from research by North American and European scientists. Early primate study focused primarily in medical research, but some scientists also conducted "civilizing" experiments on chimpanzees in order to gauge