Oskar Boettger
| Oskar Boettger | |
|---|---|
| Born | 31 March 1844 Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| Died | 25 September 1910 |
| Citizenship | German |
| Fields | Zoology |
| Institutions | Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt |
| Alma mater | University of Würzburg |
Oskar Boettger (German: Böttger; 31 March 1844 – 25 September 1910) was a German zoologist who was a native of Frankfurt am Main. He was an uncle of the noted malacologist Caesar Rudolf Boettger (1888-1976).
In 1869, Oskar Boettger received his doctorate from the University of Würzburg. The following year (1870), he became a paleontologist at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt. In 1875 he became the curator of the museum's department of herpetology and he is credited for making Senckenberg's herpetological collection one of the best in Europe during his tenure there.
Boettger suffered from agoraphobia and rarely left home, never setting foot in a museum from 1876 to 1894. Thus he relied on assistants to bring specimens he needed for his research. He was editor of "Katalog der batrachier- Sammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main" and "Katalog der Reptilien- Sammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main", which were catalogs published by the Senckenberg Museum.
[edit] Taxa
In 1911 famed zoologist George Albert Boulenger (1858-1937) dedicated the species Anolis boettgeri to Boettger, which is a Peruvian anole of the family Polychrotidae. A number of other herpetological species/subspecies are named in his honor, including:
- Testudo hermanni boettgeri; Eastern Hermann's tortoise
- Xenophrys boettgeri, a species of Asian toad
- Calumma boettgeri: blue-nosed chameleon or Boettger's chameleon
- Cacosternum boettgeri; Boettger's dainty frog
- Boettger's Wall Gecko (Tarentola boettgeri)
- Hymenochirus boettgeri; African dwarf frog
Boettger was also a conchologist or malacologist, and an entomologist who specialized in Coleoptera (beetles). Argonauta boettgeri and Sarcophyton boettgeri are named after him.
He named and described some gastropod taxa, including:
- Lampedusa Boettger, 1877, a land snail genus
- Megalophaedusa Boettger, 1877, a land snail genus
[edit] References
- Note: This article is based on a translation of an article from the French Wikipedia, namely:
- Kraig Adler (1989). Contributions to the History of Herpetology, Society for the study of amphibians and reptiles.
- Jean Lescure & Bernard Le Garff, L'étymologie des noms d'amphibiens et de reptiles. Éditions Belin, 2006. ISBN 2-7011-4142-7
