Bauer, A. M. 2025. Testudo atlas Barton, 1806, a long-forgotten synonym of the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) and a senior secondary homonym of the largest tortoise that ever lived. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(7):101–107.
Benjamin Smith Barton (1766–1815) was based in Philadelphia, the cultural and intellectual hub of the United States at the turn of the 19th century. Although he was plagued by unfinished projects, chronic debt, and was considered by some ambitious, untalented and unqualified (e.g., he never received the medical degree he claimed to have), Barton nonetheless achieved success and renown, holding positions of prestige and respect in institutions and societies in the United States and enjoying a positive reputation in Europe, where he had established a network of correspondents.
Barton was prolific, writing on medical topics and ethnography as well as natural history. In the field of herpetology his main contributions were on salamanders, rattlesnakes, and the alligator. Many of his papers were addressed to European colleagues and published in the form of letters to particular scientists. For example, his 1808 monograph on Siren was addressed to the philologist Johann Gottlob Schneider (1750–1822), although it was apparently never sent to him. However, beyond his more noteworthy contributions on amphibians and reptiles, Barton also published smaller notes, largely unnoticed by later workers, some of which proposed new names. For example, in 1807 Barton erected three new names for species of Cryptobranchus in The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, a periodical that he founded and edited. This paper had apparently been cited only once until it was recently rediscovered. I here provide a brief discussion of another Barton herpetological contribution, the description of the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), that seems to have escaped detection for more than 200 years.
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