Alphonse Milne-Edwards (
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, 13 October 1835 – Paris, 21 April 1900) was a French
mammalogist In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous system
In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part ...
,
ornithologist, and
carcinologist
A carcinologist is a scientist who studies crustaceans or is otherwise involved in carcinology
Carcinology is a branch of zoology that consists of the study of crustaceans, a group of arthropods that includes lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, ...
. He was English in origin, the son of
Henri Milne-Edwards
Henri Milne-Edwards (23 October 1800 – 29 July 1885) was an eminent French zoologist.
Biography
Henri Milne-Edwards was the 27th child of William Edwards, an English planter and colonel of the militia in Jamaica and Elisabeth Vaux, a Frenchw ...
and grandson of Bryan Edwards, a Jamaican planter who settled at
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
(then in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
).
Milne-Edwards obtained a medical degree in 1859 and became assistant to his father at the ' in 1876.
He became the director of the in 1891, devoting himself especially to
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
and deep-sea exploration. In 1881, he undertook a survey of the Gulf of Gascony with
Léopold de Folin and worked aboard the ''Travailleur'' and the ''
Talisman
A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...
,'' researching the seas off the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
, the
Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
Islands, and the
Azores
)
, motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace")
, anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores")
, image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg
, map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union
, map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
. For this, he received a gold medal of the
Royal Geographical Society.
His major ornithological works include ' published in two parts in 1867 and 1872, ' 1866–1874 and ' 1868–1874. His study of fossils led to the discovery of tropical birds such as
trogon
The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family Trogonidae contains 46 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Early E ...
s and
parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...
s from prehistoric France.
He worked with
Alfred Grandidier on '.
Milne-Edwards also described at least one plant taxon; a species of
gutta-percha
Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus ''Palaquium'' in the family Sapotaceae. The name also refers to the rigid, naturally biologically inert, resilient, electrically nonconductive, thermoplastic latex derived from the tree, particularly from ...
collected from the island of
Grande Comore, Comoros, by ornithologist
Léon Humblot
Léon Joseph Henry Humblot (3 June 1852 in Nancy – 20 March 1914) was a French naturalist and botanical collector.[Isonandra
''Isonandra'' is a genus of plants in the family Sapotaceae
240px, '' Madhuca longifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' in Narsapur, Medak district, India
The Sapotaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants belonging to the order (biolog ...]
gutta''.
[''Bulletin du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle'' 5: 187–189. 1899. ] (''I. gutta'' is now considered to be a
taxonomic synonym
The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
* In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Lin ...
of ''
Palaquium gutta
''Palaquium gutta'' is a tree in the family Sapotaceae. The specific epithet ' is from the Malay word ''getah'' meaning "sap or latex". It is known in Indonesia as ''karet oblong''.
Description
''Palaquium gutta'' grows up to tall. The bark i ...
''
(Hook.
Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew h ...
) Burck Burck is a surname; notable people with this surname include:
* Jacob Burck (1907–1982), American political cartoonist
* Joachim a Burck (1546–1610; also ''Joachim von Burgk'', sometimes ''Joachim Moller''), German composer
* Robert John Burck ...
,
and a homonym of its
basionym ''Isonandra gutta''
Hook..)
A subspecies of Central American lizard, ''
Holcosus festivus edwardsii'' , is named in honor of Milne-Edwards.
[ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Edwards", p. 80).]
Selected publications
* 1850 : ''Rapport sur la production et l'emploi du sel en Angleterre'', Paris.
* 1860
« Histoire des crustacés podophthalmaires fossiles » ''Annales des Sciences Naturelles'', Séries 4, Zoologie, 14 : 129–294, pls. 1-10.
* 1862-1865 : « Monographie des crustacés de la famille cancériens ». Annales des sciences naturelles, zoologie, Séries 4, 18 (1862) : 31-85 ; 20 (1863) : 273-324 ; Séries 5, 1 (1864) : 31-88 ; 3 (1865) : 297–351.
* 1862 : « Sur l'existence de Crustacés de la famille des Raniniens pendant la période crétacée ». ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences de Paris'', 55 : 492–494.
* 1864 : ''Recherches anatomiques, zoologiques et paléontologiques sur la famille des Chevrotains'', Martinet, Paris.
* 1866-1873 : ''Recherches sur la faune ornithologique éteinte des iles Mascareignes et de Madagascar'', Masson, Paris.
* 1867-1871
''Recherches anatomiques et paléontologiques pour servir à l'histoire des oiseaux fossiles de la France'' Masson, Paris.
* 1868-1874 : ''Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères comprenant des considérations sur la classification de ces animaux'' par M.
H. Milne Edwards, ''des observations sur l'hippopotame de Liberia et des études sur la faune de la Chine et du Tibet oriental'', par M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, Masson, Paris.
* 1873 : « Descriptions des quelques crustacés nouveaux ou peu connus provenant du Musée de M. C. Godeffroy ». ''Journal des Museum Godeffroy'', 1 : 77–88, 12–13.
* 1879 : ''Notice sur les travaux scientifiques'', Martinet, Paris.
* 1879 : with
Giovanni Battista Brocchi (1772-1826) « Note sur quelques Crustacés fossiles appartenant au groupe des macrophthalmiens ». ''Bulletin de la Société philomathique de Paris'', 3 : 113–117.
* 1879 : with
Alfred Grandidier (1836-1921), ''Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar''. Paris.
* 1880 : « Reports on the results of dredging, under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean Sea, 1877, ‘78, ‘79, by the United States Coast Survey Steamer "Blake"... VIII. Études préliminaires sur les Crustacés ». ''Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College'', 8 (1) : 1-68.
* 1881 : « Note sur quelques Crustacés fossiles des environs de Biarritz », ''Annales des sciences géologique'' (Paris), 11, article 2, pls. 21–22.
* 1882 : ''Éléments de l'Histoire naturelle des Animaux'', Masson, Paris.
* 1888-1906
''Expéditions scientifiques du Travailleur et du Talisman pendant les années 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883'' Masson, Paris.
* 1891 : ''Crustacés'', Gauthier-Villars, Paris.
* 1893 : ''Notice sur quelques espèces d'oiseaux actuellement éteintes qui se trouvent représentées dans les collections du Muséum d'Histoire naturelle'', Paris.
* 1897 : ''Histoire naturelle des animaux'' Masson, Paris.
See also
*
:Taxa named by Alphonse Milne-Edwards
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Milne-Edwards, Alphonse
1835 births
1900 deaths
19th-century French zoologists
French ornithologists
French carcinologists
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
French people of English descent
National Museum of Natural History (France) people
Scientists from Paris