After the 1872–1876 HMS Challenger expedition had returned, he was asked in January 1878 by Sir Wyville Thomson to describe the free-swimming Crinoids that had been collected. Dr. Carpenter was an expert on the morphology of the echinoderms, especially the crinoids, both contemporary and fossil. In 1883, he was awarded the Lyell Fund by the Geological Society of London in recognition of the scientific value of his work, and in 1885 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Publications
Carpenter published a large number of papers on Echinoderm and especially Crinoid morphology, in the Royal, Linnean, Geological, and Zoological Societies of London, the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Zoologischer Anzeiger, and many other journals. He jointly authored the Catalogue of the Blastoidea in the British Museum with Mr. R. Etheridge, jun.
1882. On the Relations of Hybocrinus, Baerocrinus, and Hybocystites, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxviii., pp. 298–312, pi. xi.
1886. Note on the Structure of Crotalocrinus, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. xviii. pp. 397–406.
1887. Notes on Echinoderm Morphology, No. 11; on the Development of the Apical Plates in Amphiura squamata, Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. vol. xxviii. pp. 303–317.
1889. Report on the Comatulae of the Mergui Archipelago, etc., Journ. Linn. Soc. London, vol. xxi. pp. 304–316, pis. xxvi. and xxvii.
1890. On certain points in the Anatomical Nomenclature of Echinoderms, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, vol. vi. pp. 1–23.
1891. Some publications on American Carboniferous Echinoderms, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, vol. viii. pp. 94–100.
1891. On certain points in the Morphology of the Cystidea, Journ. Linn. Soc. London, vol. xxiv. pp. 1–52, pi. i. Abstract in Rep. Brit. Assoc. for 1890, p. 821; and in GEOL. MAG. Dec. III. Vol. VIH. p. 135, March 1891.
1891. Notes on some Arctic Comatulae, Journ. Linn. Soc. London, vol. xxiv. pp. 53–63, pi. ii.
1891. Notes on some Crinoids from the Neighbourhood of Madeira, op. et torn. tit. pp. 64–69.
He also contributed an account of the Echinoderms to Cassell's Natural History, and was the chief contributor for the section on the same group in Nicholson and Lydekker's A Manual of Palaeontology.
Family
On 19 April 1879, he married Caroline Emma Hale, daughter of Edward Hale, an assistant master at Eton, by whom he had five sons, all surviving him.
