Bibliotheca Herpetologica 14(3)

Bettelheim, M.P. 2020. Osman Hamdi’s “The Tortoise Trainer” – The Tortoise and the Tulip Revisited. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 14(3): 15-18. Published October 28, 2020.

The Lost Species: Great Expeditions in the Collections of Natural History Museums

Kemp, Christopher. 2017. The Lost Species: Great Expeditions in the Collections of Natural History Museums. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, xxii, 250 p. [ISBN: 9780226386218]

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Great Expeditions in

the Collections of Natural

History Museums 

Publisher description: The tiny, lungless Thorius salamander from southern Mexico, thinner than a match and smaller than a quarter. The lushly white-coated Saki, an arboreal monkey from the Brazilian rainforests. The olinguito, a native of the Andes, which looks part mongoose, part teddy bear. These fantastic species are all new to science—at least newly named and identified; but they weren’t discovered in the wild, instead, they were unearthed in the drawers and cavernous basements of natural history museums. As Christopher Kemp reveals in The Lost Species, hiding in the cabinets and storage units of natural history museums is a treasure trove of discovery waiting to happen.

With Kemp as our guide, we go spelunking into museum basements, dig through specimen trays, and inspect the drawers and jars of collections, scientific detectives on the hunt for new species. We discover king crabs from 1906, unidentified tarantulas, mislabeled Himalayan landsnails, an unknown rove beetle originally collected by Darwin, and an overlooked squeaker frog, among other curiosities. In each case, these specimens sat quietly for decades—sometimes longer than a century—within the collections of museums, before sharp-eyed scientists understood they were new. Each year, scientists continue to encounter new species in museum collections—a stark reminder that we have named only a fraction of the world’s biodiversity. Sadly, some specimens have waited so long to be named that they are gone from the wild before they were identified, victims of climate change and habitat loss. As Kemp shows, these stories showcase the enduring importance of these very collections.

The Lost Species vividly tells these stories of discovery—from the latest information on each creature to the people who collected them and the scientists who finally realized what they had unearthed—and will inspire many a museumgoer to want to peek behind the closed doors and rummage through the archives.

 

Herpetological notes: This book is a tribute to, and argument for, natural history museums. Herpetologically there are three chapters (highlighted below). Chapter 8 discusses Jim Hanken’s work on salamanders of the genus Thorius, beginning in the 1970s when he discovered a new species in a jar full of other Thorius specimens, then proceeded to search other museum collections only to find several more new species of this genus.

Chapter 9 tells the story of David Blackburn’s discovery of Arthroleptis kutogundua in a jar of Arthroleptis frogs collected by Arthur Loveridge in 1930. This chapter also discusses Mark O’Shea’s discovery of Toxicocalamus ernstmayeri, in the Museum of Comparative Zoology collection at Harvard.

Chapter 10 highlights Hinrich Kaiser’s discovery of Cyrtodactylus celatus while going through reptiles collected from Timor in the British Museum’s collection.

 

Contents:

Introduction

The Vertebrates
1. Pushed up a Mountain and into the Clouds: The Olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina)
2. Beneath a Color 83 Sky: The Ucucha Mouse (Thomasomys ucucha)
3. Going on a Tapir Hunt: The Little Black Tapir (Tapirus kabomani)
4. A Taxonomic Confusion: The Saki Monkeys (Pithecia genus)
5. Scattered to the Corners of the World: The Arfak Pygmy Bandicoot (Microperoryctes aplini)
6. The One That Got Away for 160 Years: Wallace’s Pike Cichlid (Crenicichla monicae)
7. Here Be Dragons: The Ruby Seadragon (Phyllopteryx dewysea)
8. A Century in a Jar: The Thorius Salamanders
9. From a Green Bowl: The Overlooked Squeaker Frog (Arthroleptis kutogundua)
10. A Body and a Disembodied Tail: Smith’s Hidden Gecko (Cyrtodactylus celatus)

The Invertebrates
11. Treasure in the By-Catch: The Gall Wasps (Cynipoidea species)
12. The Biomimic: The Lightning Cockroach (Lucihormetica luckae)
13. Sunk beneath the Surface in a Sea of Beetles: Darwin’s Rove Beetle (Darwinilus sedarisi)
14. The Spoils of a Distant War: The Congo Duskhawker Dragonfly (Gynacantha congolica)
15. A Specimen in Two Halves: Muir’s Wedge-Shaped Beetle (Rhipidocyrtus muiri)
16. Mary Kingsley’s Longhorn Beetle (Pseudictator kingsleyae)
17. The Giant Flies (Gauromydas papavero and Gauromydas mateus)
18. It Came from Area 51: The Atomic Tarantula Spider (Aphonopelma atomicum)
19. The Host with the Most: The Nematode Worm (Ohbayashinema aspeira)
20. From a Time Machine on Cromwell Road: Ablett’s Land Snail (Pseudopomatias abletti)
21. In Sight of Land: Payden’s Isopod (Exosphaeroma paydenae)
22. A Ball of Spines: Makarov’s King Crab (Paralomis makarovi)

Botanical
23. In an Ikea Bag: The Custard Apple Family (Monanthotaxis Genus)

The Others
24. Waiting with Their Jackets On: The Fossils (Paleontology Specimens Collected by Elmer Riggs)
25. The First Art: The Earliest Hominin Engraving (a 500,000-Year-Old Shell)
Epilogue

Illustration Captions and Credits
Notes
Index

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 14(2)

 
Bauer, A. M. and E. J. Hilton. 2020. Obituary: Joseph C. Mitchell (1948–2019), Master Naturalist. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 14(2):12-14. Published Oct. 24, 2020.

The Art of Natural History: Botanical Illustrations, Ornithological Drawings, and Other Masterpieces from the Age of Exploration

Heurtel, Pascale and Michelle Lenoir. 2018. The Art of Natural History: Botanical Illustrations, Ornithological Drawings, and Other Masterpieces from the Age of Exploration. Rizzoli, New York, 632 p. [9780847863082]

 

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History: Botanical Illustrations,

Ornithological Drawings, and

Other Masterpieces from the

Age of Exploration

From the publisher: This oversized collector’s edition showcases antique paintings and drawings of birds and animals from the most important natural history collection in France.

An unparalleled collection of the most beautiful—yet scientific—depictions of flora and fauna ever produced, these artworks document three centuries of exploration of the far reaches of the world—a rich visual record harking back to a time when science relied upon painstaking human illustration as the only way to record exotic plants and unknown animals observed during voyages of discovery.

All the artworks included here were depicted on vellum, a high-quality, long-lasting parchment that fell out of use around 1900 when it was supplanted by photography. France’s national collection consists of over 7,000 such artworks and is among the world’s finest. Flora and fauna from every corner of the globe are represented in precisely rendered color and detail.

Sadly, many of the species depicted in these masterful yet hauntingly accurate portraits are now endangered, threatened—or in many cases, already extinct. This volume is both a celebration of the human quest for knowledge and an epitaph for a fast disappearing world—as well as a feast for the eyes for anyone who loves birds or vintage natural history art. This exquisite and timeless book is beautifully presented in a jacketed volume within a slipcase and luxuriously packaged within an illustrated mailer with a handle for portability.

 

Herpetological notes: This lavishly published volume reminds one of the full size reprint of Seba’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: Locupletissmi rerum naturalium thesauri 1734-1765 by Taschen in 2001. Although the number of herpetological plates included in this volume are few, they are exquisite and unlikely to be found anywhere else. 

 

Herpetological plates included are:

Reunion Giant Tortoise (extinct species) by Claude Aubriet

Imaginary lizard by Jean Joubert

Tortoise – possibly Testudo(teachea and lungs) by Pierre Joseph Redouté

Red-footed Tortoise by Nicholas Huet

Brazilian Snake-necked Turtle by Pierre François de Wailly

Spotted Turtle by Nicholas Maréchal

African Softshell Turtle by Henri Joseph Rodouté

Chinese Alligator by Nicholas Huet

Ocellated Lizard by Henri Joseph Redouté

Senegal Chameleon by Nicholas Huet

Nile Monitor by Nicholas Huet

Grass Snake by Nicholas Huet

Egyptian Cobra by Jacques Barraband

Timber Rattlesnake by Henri Joseph Redouté

European Green Toad by Nicholas Huet

Marbled Newt by Henri Joseph Redouté

Horned Viper by J. Huet

Bell’s Dabb Lizard by Paul Louis Oudart and Marie Firmin Bocourt

Dwarg Crocodile by J. Huet

Brazilian Horned Frog by Juliette Alberti

Magdalena River Turtle by A.J.B. Vaillant

Asian Water Monitor [Misidentified Tegu] – by Jean-Charles Werner

Green Iguana by Antoine Chazal

Boa Constrictor by A.J.B. Vaillant

Gaboon Viper by Antoine Chazal

Egyptian Cobra by Marie Firmin Bocourt

Malagasy Tree Boa by Eugène Juillerat

Bullfrog by Antoine Chazal

Radiated Tortoise by A. Jobin

Crocodile fossil by Antoine Chazal

Red-footed Tortoise by Nicholas Huet

Contents: 

Preface

The Vellum Collection: Between Art and Science

 

The Beginnings of the Vellum Collection (1630–1685)

Painting Books in the Seventeenth Century

Gaston d’Orléans and the Birth of the Collection
Gaston d’Orléans, Collector and Bibliophile

Gaston d’Orléans, Collector of Plants and Birds

Nicolas Robert, The Vellum Collections First Painter

La Guirlande de Julie

Notes

 

The King’s Vellums (1685–1780)

The King’s Vellums and Louis XIV’s Collections

The “Painters in Miniature to the King”

The Vellums and the King’s Library

The “Plantes du roi”

Notes

 

The Golden Age of the Vellums and the Muséum (1780–1832)

The Vellums at the Muséum

The Muséum’s Painters: From Van Spaendonck to Rodouté

Vellums and Publishing in the Early Nineteenth Century

Notes

 

The Collection’s Growth, End, and Renaissance (1832–2005)

The Diversity of the Collection During the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

The Muséum’s Vellum Collection: A Phoenix?

The Node-Véran Vellum Collection in Montpellier: Between Promotion and Scientific Research

Notes

 

The Vellums

Introduction

Were the Botanical Vellums Scientific Tools?

Animals in the Vellums of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle

Notes

 

The Beginnings of the Vellum Collection (1630–1685)

Botanical Plates

Zoological Plates

Captions

 

The King’s Vellums (1685–1780)

Botanical Plates

Zoological Plates

Captions

 

The Golden Age of the Vellums and the Muséum (1780–1832)

Botanical Plates

Zoological Plates

Captions

 

The Collection’s Growth, End, and Renaissance (1832–2005)

Botanical Plates

Zoological Plates

Captions

 

Appendix

The Vellum Technique

Bibliography

Index of Artists

Index of Persons and Institutions

Index of Scientific Names

Capturing Nature: Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857–1893

Finney, Vanessa. 2019. Capturing Nature: Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857–1893. NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, viii, 200 p. [ISBN: 9781742236209]

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at the Australian Museum
1857–1893 

Publisher description: In the mid-nineteenth century, scientists around the world were quick to see photography’s huge potential for capturing fleeting moments of life, death, and discovery. At the Australian Museum, curator Gerard Krefft and taxidermist Henry Barnes began to experiment with the revolutionary new art form, preparing and staging their specimens—from whales and giant sunfish to lifelike lyre bird scenes and fossils—and documenting them in thousands of arresting images. Capturing Nature reveals these groundbreaking photographs for the first time, along with the Australian Museum’s urgent quest to become more scientific in its practices.

Herpetological notes: This book contains a wealth of information about Gerard Krefft (1830–1881) who was at the Australian Museum from 1860 to 1874. Krefft had previous experience with photography, which he brought with him to the museum. In addition to the establishment and growth of photography at the museum, the author presents breakout sections of particular interest to herpetologists. One of these sections discusses the use of photography for the illustrations by the Scott sisters in Krefft’s 1869 book, The Snakes of Australia. Another breakout section discusses the type specimen of Crocodylus johnstoni. The book contains a number of photographs of Krefft, including a carte de vista of him with several reptiles. Throughout the book are never before published photographs of Australian fauna, including several reptiles.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 14(1)

Malm, T. 2020. A Footnote to Scandinavian Herpetology: Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius and his Quest for the Dragon or Lindworm. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 14(1): 1-11. Published October 7, 2020.

Abstract. Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius (1818–1889) was a pioneer in Swedish ethnology. His booklet Om Draken eller Lindormen [On the Dragon or Lindworm], a memorandum to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, first printed in 1884 with a second revised edition in 1885, was intended as a contribution to natural science as well as ethnology. After having collected numerous eyewitness accounts, he concluded that a snake, known for hundreds of years as a drake [dragon], lindorm [lindworm], or hjulorm [hoop snake], up to six meters long and "thick as a man's leg," sometimes also with long hair or scales on its neck looking like a horse's mane, still existed in the Swedish forests. This article describes his unsuccessful attempts to obtain a type specimen and interest naturalists in his project.