richard wainwright "thor" thorington jr. (december 24, 1937 - february 24, 2017) was an american zoologist who made seminal contributions to mammalogy and evolutionary biology.. he was known especially for his expertise on squirrels. after preparatory school at the haverford school, he received the a.b. in biology from princeton university in 1959 followed by the m.a. in 1963 and ph.d. in 1964, both from harvard university. his doctoral dissertation, supervised by ernst mayr, was entitled "the biology of rodent tails: a study of form and function". on completing his doctorate he took a position as primatologist with harvard's regional primate center, in which capacity he studied monkeys in brazil, colombia, and panama. in 1969 he moved to the smithsonian institution as a curator of mammals, where he remained until his retirement in 2009. from 1987 until 1992 he served as chair of the department of vertebrate zoology.