Joseph Frederick Whiteaves was a British palaeontologist, born on December 26, 1835, in Oxford, England. In 1861 he visited Canada and got to know the geology of Quebec and Montreal. In 1863 he was appointed curator of the museum and secretary of the Natural History Society of Montreal, posts which he occupied until 1875. He studied the land and freshwater mollusca of Lower Canada and the marine invertebrates of the coasts. He also carried on researches among the older Silurian fossils of the neighbourhood of Montreal.In 1875 he joined the palaeontological branch of the Geological Survey of Canada in Montreal. In 1877 he was appointed zoologist and assistant director of the survey.He published numerous articles on Canadian zoology and palaeontology in the Canadian Naturalist, Transactions and other journals.In 1900 he received the honorary degree of LL.D from McGill University, Montreal. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and the Royal Society of Canada.He died on August 8, 1909, in Ottawa, Ontario.