Wednesday, August 1, 2007

The Society Meeting 2007

 The Herpetological Legacy of Linnaeus:

A Celebration of the Linnaean Tercentenary.

The Society commemorated the 300th birthday of Carl Linnaeus at the 2007 joint meeting of the HL, SSAR and ASIH, hosted by St. Louis University at the Hyatt Regency in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, 11 - 16 July. With the Herpetologists League (HL) as sponsor, the ISHBH organized a half-day symposium on 14 July 2007 at 8 a.m. to noon.

Carl Linnaeus was born on 23 May 1707. He is often called the father of taxonomy but he made also important contributions specific to herpetology through his original descriptions of numerous taxa, ecological and biological writings, publications on snakebite and its treatment and, indirectly, through his influence on a generation of students who served as apostles of "the Linnaean system" and themselves collected and described amphibians and reptiles from around the world.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Torbjörn Lindell, a distinguished Linnaeus scholar from Sweden, the country in which Linnaeus was born and practiced most of his life. Other speakers were Kraig Adler, Aaron M. Bauer, William E. Duellman, László Krecsák/Richard Wahlgren, Ernest A. Liner, Roy W. McDiarmid, Chuck Schaffer, John E. Simmons/Julianne Snider, and Kevin de Quiroz.

The symposium included an open exhibition of most of the original publications written by Linnaeus and his students relating to herpetology.

A study tour to a library of the Missouri Botanical Garden with the immense holding of Linnaean original publications was organized immediately after the symposium and shared luncheon. Our thanks go to Robert E. Magill and James C. Solomon who so kindly opened up this unique library for the society members and shared the knowledge in demonstrating the books.

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