John Van Denburgh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs) at 18:59, 9 August 2018 (Removing from Category:American zoologists using Cat-a-lot). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

John Van Denburgh
Born(1872-08-23)August 23, 1872
DiedOctober 24, 1924(1924-10-24) (aged 52)
Alma materStanford University, Johns Hopkins University
Scientific career
FieldsHerpetology, medicine
Author abbrev. (zoology)Van Denburgh

John Van Denburgh (August 23, 1872 – October 24, 1924) was an American herpetologist from California.

Biography

Van Denburgh was born in San Francisco and enrolled at Stanford University in 1891. As of 1895, he organized the herpetology department of the California Academy of Sciences. In 1897, he received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and earned a M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1902. Subsequently, he practiced medicine in San Francisco, while again serving as curator of the herpetological collections of the California Academy of Sciences.

After the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 he was instrumental in rebuilding the lost herpetology collections through new expeditions and also acquisitions of other collections. In 1922, he published the two-volume The Reptiles of Western North America.

He died in 1924 while on vacation in Hawaii.

Taxa named in honor of Van Denburgh

Van Denburgh is commemorated in the scientific names of one species and three subspecies of reptiles: Aspodoscelis tigris vandenburghi, Diadophis punctatus vandenburgii, Sceloporus graciosus vandenburgianus, and Scincella vandenburghi.[1]

References

  1. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Van Denburgh", pp. 271-272).

External links

Further reading

  • Jennings, M.R. (1997). "John Van Denburgh (1872-1924), Pioneer Herpetologist of the American West". Collection Building in Ichthyology and Herpetology. Special Publications. Vol. 6. American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. pp. 323–350. ISBN 0-935868-91-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)