On the identity of Monsieur Dussumier’s Dutch tortoise and the lectotype of Testudo dussumieri Gray, 1831

Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2665 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
J. FRAZIER ◽  
PAT MATYOT
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Of ◽  
Taxonomic Confusion ◽  
Continued Use ◽  
Extinct Taxon ◽  
Made In ◽  
Critical Aspects

Although it was forgotten for over a century, the binomen Testudo dussumieri Gray, 1831, is an available name, and the specimen RMNH 3231 deposited in the natural history museum of Leiden – evidently one of the two original syntypes of T. dussumieri – has been designated as the lectotype of this taxon. Recently several authors have actively promoted this as the name-bearing type for the Aldabra tortoise, escalating debates in which this chelonian has been immersed for nearly two decades. This lectotype designation is highly significant to nomenclatural and taxonomic disputes regarding tortoises (Testudinidae), living and extinct, from the western Indian Ocean; and an attempt has been made in this paper to compile all information relevant to the lectotype as well as to better understand the history of the binomen applied to it. Several critical aspects of the history are uncertain and open to speculation. The provenance of RMNH 3231 is unknown and unlikely to be Aldabra Atoll; the specimen was most likely collected in the granitic Seychelles, between 1823 and 1829. The combination of estimated date and locality of collection raises the possibility that the lectotype is not an Aldabra tortoise, but rather an extinct taxon from the granitic Seychelles. It is concluded that RMNH 3231 is not a suitable name-bearing type for the Aldabra tortoise, and the continued use of the name T. dussumieri will cause persistent nomenclatural and taxonomic confusion and unending debate.

Molluscan taxa in the publications of the Museum Godeffroy of Hamburg, with a discussion of the Godeffroy Sales Catalogs (1864–1884), the Journal des Museum Godeffroy (1873–1910), and a history of the museum

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3511 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
RÜDIGER BIELER ◽  
RICHARD E. PETIT
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Species Group ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
World War ◽  
Public Display ◽  
History Museum ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
Taxonomic Confusion

The Museum Godeffroy (1861–1885), a private natural history museum in Hamburg (Germany) founded by the merchantJohn Cesar VI Godeffroy, functioned as a research and public display museum, as well as a natural history specimendealership. Large collections of zoological, botanical, ethnographic, and anthropological specimens were obtained bycompany employees and an international group of contract collectors, mostly in the Pacific, made available for study tospecialists, and placed in the museum’s holdings or distributed by sale. The museum produced two series of publications,both containing descriptions of new zoological taxa as well as nomina nuda: a set of Museum Godeffroy Catalogs(1864–1884) and the Journal des Museum Godeffroy (1873–1910), both described and dated in detail herein. This papersummarizes the history of the museum and its collecting efforts, with special focus on malacological research and thedevelopment and fate of molluscan collections of the Museum Godeffroy, with much of the material having passed toHamburg’s Naturhistorisches Museum where they were largely destroyed during World War II. Using a species-levelnumbering system, the Museum Godeffroy Catalog series (and the labels associated with Museum Godeffroy specimens thatwere sold and traded worldwide) introduced hundreds of gastropod and bivalve nomina nuda into the molluscan literature.Previously uncertain dating of the malacological publications in the Museum’s Journal, mostly by Rudolph Bergh on Pacificnudibranchs, similarly created taxonomic confusion as many of the supposedly new taxa were near-simultaneously publishedalso in other serial publications. 591 molluscan names in the Museum Godeffroy Catalogs, and 59 in the Journal arediscussed. It is shown that 42 molluscan names date from these publications, all of them gastropods: 1 (preoccupied) genus-group name and 4 replacement species names by J. D. E. Schmeltz, 5 genera and 31 species-group taxa by R. Bergh, and 1 species by F. Heynemann.

Editorial Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Editors of the JIOWS
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fourth Volume ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
Indian Ocean World ◽  
Shed Light

The editors are proud to present the first issue of the fourth volume of the Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies. This issue contains three articles, by James Francis Warren (Murdoch University), Kelsey McFaul (University of California, Santa Cruz), and Marek Pawelczak (University of Warsaw), respectively. Warren’s and McFaul’s articles take different approaches to the growing body of work that discusses pirates in the Indian Ocean World, past and present. Warren’s article is historical, exploring the life and times of Julano Taupan in the nineteenth-century Philippines. He invites us to question the meaning of the word ‘pirate’ and the several ways in which Taupan’s life has been interpreted by different European colonists and by anti-colonial movements from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. McFaul’s article, meanwhile, takes a literary approach to discuss the much more recent phenomenon of Somali Piracy, which reached its apex in the last decade. Its contribution is to analyse the works of authors based in the region, challenging paradigms that have mostly been developed from analysis of works written in the West. Finally, Pawelczak’s article is a legal history of British jurisdiction in mid-late nineteenth-century Zanzibar. It examines one of the facets that underpinned European influence in the western Indian Ocean World before the establishment of colonial rule. In sum, this issue uses two key threads to shed light on the complex relationships between European and other Western powers and the Indian Ocean World.

scholarly journals Observations upon the Natural History of Epidemic Diarrhoea

1910 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. H. Peters
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Health Department ◽  
The Other ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Town ◽  
Made In

The following observations upon the Natural History of Epidemic Diarrhoea were made in Mansfield during the summer and autumn of 1908. The fact that at the time the writer was engaged in preparing a paper—to which the present paper is to some extent complementary—upon the epidemiological relations of season and disease, lent special interest to the enquiries regularly made from the Health Department of this town into the circumstances attending fatal attacks of diarrhoea. Early in the season a more than usually extensive enquiry was made into one of these fatal attacks in an area where an outbreak of diarrhoea appeared to be spreading outwards from a group of old privy-middens. To test how far the condemnation of the latter was justifiable another area was taken on the other side of the town, where the houses were newly built and provided exclusively with water-closets; and records, collected by house-to-house visitation, were obtained of all cases of epidemic diarrhoea, whether non-fatal or otherwise, occurring in these localities. The enquiries thus begun were afterwards extended so as to embrace two fairly large districts, a chance of doing this being provided by the opportune postponement of the addition to the department of certain work of inspection which had been impending at the beginning of the summer. These districts were several times revisited and scattered observations were also made throughout the other parts of the town. During 1909, while there was no opportunity of making extended observations, there were valuable opportunities during the course of the routine inspections of the summer of testing and re-testing the principal results obtained during 1908.

Cuban Corals in East Berlin’s Natural History Museum, 1967–74

2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Manuela Bauche
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Natural History ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Of

This essay reconstructs the history of a coral-reef diorama, the outcome of a German Democratic Republic expedition to Cuba, that was displayed in East Berlin’s Natural History Museum in 1967 on the occasion of the GDR’s twenty-fifth anniversary. The paper investigates how the practice of socialist internationalism influenced the diorama’s coming into being, arguing that while official diplomatic relations between Cuba and the GDR were a prerequisite for the expedition, nongovernmental contacts were central to both the initiation and execution of the project. It also demonstrates how the diorama’s display was informed more by national and institutional concerns than by the rhetoric and policies of internationalism.

scholarly journals Bat coronavirus phylogeography in the Western Indian Ocean

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léa Joffrin ◽  
Steven M. Goodman ◽  
David A. Wilkinson ◽  
Beza Ramasindrazana ◽  
Erwan Lagadec ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Reunion Island ◽  
High Genetic Diversity ◽  
Soil Fertilization ◽  
Réunion Island ◽  
History Of ◽  
Bat Coronavirus

AbstractBats provide key ecosystem services such as crop pest regulation, pollination, seed dispersal, and soil fertilization. Bats are also major hosts for biological agents responsible for zoonoses, such as coronaviruses (CoVs). The islands of the Western Indian Ocean are identified as a major biodiversity hotspot, with more than 50 bat species. In this study, we tested 1,013 bats belonging to 36 species from Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Reunion Island and Seychelles, based on molecular screening and partial sequencing of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene. In total, 88 bats (8.7%) tested positive for coronaviruses, with higher prevalence in Mozambican bats (20.5% ± 4.9%) as compared to those sampled on islands (4.5% ± 1.5%). Phylogenetic analyses revealed a large diversity of α- and β-CoVs and a strong signal of co-evolution between CoVs and their bat host species, with limited evidence for host-switching, except for bat species sharing day roost sites.ImportanceThis is the first study to report the presence of coronaviruses (CoVs) in bats in Mayotte, Mozambique and Reunion Island, and in insectivorous bats in Madagascar. Eight percent of the tested bats were positive for CoVs, with higher prevalence in continental Africa than on islands. A high genetic diversity of α- and β-CoVs was found, with strong association between bat host and virus phylogenies, supporting a long history of co-evolution between bats and their associated CoVs in the Western Indian Ocean. These results highlight that strong variation between islands does exist and is associated with the composition of the bat species community on each island. Future studies should investigate whether CoVs detected in these bats have a potential for spillover in other hosts.

scholarly journals History of the publishing activity of the State Natural History Museum of the NAS of Ukraine

2019 ◽  
pp. 157-160
Author(s):  
O. Klymyshyn
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
The State ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Book Series ◽  
Publishing Activity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Collections

The publishing activity of the museum for the whole period of its existence is analyzed, starting from the first published in the museum by V. Didushitsky in 1880 and up to 2018 inclusive. Approximately this work is about 3.5 thousand publications, among which 84 monographs; 35 issues of the scientific miscellany "Proceedings of the State Natural History Museum"; 5 issues of the book series "Scientific Collections of the State Natural History Museum"; more than 50 catalogs of museum collections, thematic miscellanies, qualifiers, dictionaries and guides; about 2.2 thousand scientific articles; about 1 thousand materials and abstracts of reports of scientific conferences, as well as dozens of popular scientific articles, brochures and booklets.

scholarly journals Bats from Lebanon at the Natural History Museum, Vienna: a cautionary tale on the reliability of museum specimen data (Chiroptera)

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-43
Author(s):  
Petr Benda ◽  
Simon Engelberger
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Museum Specimen ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Rhinolophus Ferrumequinum ◽  
Myotis Myotis ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come

Abstract Seven historical bat specimens of four species (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, R. mehelyi, Taphozous nudiventris, Myotis myotis), attributed to originate from the territory of the present-day Lebanon, are deposited and documented in the modern database of the mammal collection of the Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien). Two of these species (R. mehelyi, T. nudiventris) have never been reported for Lebanon in the existing literature and recent surveys have also failed to find them in this country. Since these bats were collected in the period 1824–1885, the history of the all respective specimens was evaluated in detail. The revision brought rather unexpected results. Only one specimen (R. ferrumequinum) was found to come (most probably) from Lebanon, being collected by W. Hemprich and Ch. Ehrenberg in 1824. In the remaining six specimens, the origin could not be defined, thus rendering the statement that they were collected in Lebanon insecure. This case demonstrates that careful checks of modern interpretations of historical records are necessary when examining past distributions of organisms.

scholarly journals Korok és Kórok kiállítás 2019-2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 305-315
Author(s):  
Krisztina Scheffer ◽  
Enikő Szvák ◽  
Hedvig Győry
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Educational Program ◽  
Art Museum ◽  
Additional Material ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Museum Visitors ◽  
Know How ◽  
Hungarian Natural History Museum ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Made In

The HNM Semmelweis Museum of Medical History's exhibition „Diseases for the Ages, What the Deceased Tell Us”, is displaying the anthropological collection of the Museum which never was presented earlier, and the mummy-research made in the framework of the Nephthys Project, with some additional material from the Hungarian Natural History Museum and the Hopp Ferenc Asian Art Museum. Visitors can learn about the appearance of known and little-known diseases visible on archaeological human remains and gain insight into the know-how and the results of the mummy research. The exhibition is accompanied by a museum educational program and a series of lectures.

The Natural History of Hydrocephalus

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-313
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Surgical Therapy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arrested Hydrocephalus ◽  
Made In

A series of 182 unselected and unoperated cases of hydrocephalus, observed by one individual during a period of 20 years, were followed in an effort to determine the natural history of hydrocephalus. At the time of this report, 89 of the patients had died and 81 arrested spontaneously and the remaining 12 were either progressive or could not be traced. In most cases the hydrocephalus was acquired either through infection or perinatal trauma and anoxia. The children were all under the age of 13 years and hydrocephalus was first observed to develop usually by 6 months of age. The survivors with arrested hydrocephalus frequently had other physical handicaps in addition to the enlargement of the head. The intelligence of the survivors was tested and 75% of those with spontaneous arrest were educable and the I.Q. of 57% was 85 or above. The author points out that the findings in this survey are in contrast to the statements generally made in the literature: that the possibility of spontaneous arrest and preservation of a degree of intelligence permitting education is extremely poor. The bearing of the findings on the evaluation of the results of surgical therapy are discussed.

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