Franz Steindachner

Franz Steindachner
Steindachner in 1912
Born(1834-11-11)11 November 1834
Vienna
Died10 December 1919(1919-12-10) (aged 85)
Vienna
Known forIchthyologische Notizen and other works on ichthyology and herpetology
Scientific career
FieldsZoologist, ichthyology, herpetology
WorkplacesNatural History Museum, Vienna, Harvard University
Steindachner

Franz Steindachner (11 November 1834 – 10 December 1919) was an Austrian zoologist, ichthyologist and herpetologist. He published over 200 papers on fishes and over 50 papers on reptiles and amphibians. Steindachner described hundreds of new species of fish and dozens of new amphibians and reptiles. Several dozen species of animals are named after him.

Life and career

Steindachner was born on 11 November 1834 in Vienna. Being interested in natural history, he took up the study of fossil fishes on the recommendation of his friend Eduard Suess (1831–1914). In 1860 he was appointed to the position of director of the fish collection at the Natural History Museum, Vienna, a position which had remained vacant since the death of Johann Jakob Heckel (1790–1857).

Steindachner's reputation as an ichthyologist grew, and in 1868 he was invited by Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) to accept a position at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Steindachner took part in the Hassler Expedition of 1871–1872 (a journey that circumnavigated South America from Boston to San Francisco). In 1874 he returned to Vienna, and in 1887 was appointed director of the zoological department of the Natural History Museum. In 1898 he was promoted to director of the museum.

He travelled extensively during his career, his research trips taking him throughout the Iberian Peninsula, the Red Sea, the Canary Islands, Senegal, Latin America, et al. In his zoological studies, his interests were mainly from a systematic and faunistic standpoint.

Among his better known works in ichthyology are Ichthyologische Notizen (1863, published over 8 editions), Ichthyologische Beiträge (1874), and Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Flussfische Südamerikas (1879), the latter work dealing with river fish of South America. In the field of herpetology, he published Die Schlangen und Eidechsen der Galapagos-Inseln (Snakes and lizards of the Galápagos Islands, 1875).

From 1875, Steindachner was member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. In 1892, he became a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Steindachner died on 10 December 1919 in Vienna.

Eponymy

A number of taxa have been named from Steindachner's collections after him:

Fish genera

Fish species

Reptile species

Bird species and subspecies

Amphibian species

Invertebrates

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kähsbauer, P. (1959). "Intendant Dr. Franz Steindachner, sein Leben und Werk". Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien (in German). 63: 1–30.
  2. ↑ "Steindachner search results". Reptile Database.
  3. 1 2 "Naturhistorisches Museum Wien". (in German).
  4. 1 2 Killy, Walther; Vierhaus, Rudolf, eds. (30 November 2011). "Steindachner, Franz". Dictionary of German Biography. Vol. 9. Walter de Gruyter. p. 501. ISBN 9783110966299.
  5. ↑ "Steindachner, Franz 1834–1919". Library of Congress Linked Data Service.
  6. ↑ Jordan DS, Evermann BW (1898). "The Fishes of North and Middle America: a Descriptive Catalogue ..." Bulletin of the United States National Museum. Number 47, Part III.
  7. ↑ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Steindachneridion parahybae". FishBase.
  8. ↑ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Steindachnerina amazonica". FishBase.
  9. ↑ "Arowana Tetra (Gnathocharax steindachneri)". iNaturalist. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  10. ↑ Scharpf, Christopher; Lazara, Kenneth J. (22 September 2018). "Family MORMYRIDAE Bonaparte 1831 (Elephantfishes)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 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. (Steindachner, p. 252).
  12. 1 2 3 Beolens, B.; Watkins, M.; Grayson, M. (2013). The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Exeter England: Pelagic Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907807-41-1. xiii + 244 pp. (Steindachner, pp. 204–205).

Further reading