DENIKER, JOSEPH (1852-1918), French naturalist and anthropologist, was born at Astrakhan, Russia. He studied at St. Petersburg (Leningrad) and, as an engineer, travelled extensively in the petroleum districts of the Caucasus, in central Europe, Italy and Dalmatia. In 1888 he was appointed chief librarian of the Natural History museum, Paris. His valuable ethnological works include Recherches anatomiques et embryologiques sur les singes anthropoides (1886); Etude sur les Kalmouks (1883); Les Ghiliaks (1883); and Races et peuples de la terre (19oo; Eng. trans. 19oo, 2nd ed. 1926). He was one of the editors of the Dictionnaire de geographie universelle. He died in Paris on March 18,1918.