Alexander Eduard Friedrich Eversmann (23 January 1794 – 14 April 1860) was a Prussian

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

. Eversmann was born in

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

and studied at the universities of

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

, Halle,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

. He received his degree of Philosophy and Master of Liberal Sciences at Halle in 1814, and at Dorpat graduated as a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery in 1817. During the next three years he travelled in the southern

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through European ...

, collecting specimens and sending them to

Hinrich Lichtenstein Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein (10 January 1780 – 2 September 1857) was a German physician, explorer, botanist and zoologist. Biography Born in Hamburg, Lichtenstein was the son of Anton August Heinrich Lichtenstein. He studied medicine ...

at the university of Berlin. Eversmann had for a long time planned to travel into

central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

to collect natural history specimens. He had studied the languages, customs and

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

religion of the peoples of the area. In 1820 he set of for

Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...

disguised as a merchant, a journey he described in ''Reise Orenburg nach Buchara'' (1823), with a natural history appendix by Lichtenstein. In 1825 he travelled with a military expedition to Khiva. In 1828 he was appointed professor of

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

at the

university of Kazan Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

. During the next thirty years he wrote numerous publications and is considered the pioneer of research into the flora and fauna of the southeast steppes of Russia between the

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...

and the Urals. His name is commemorated in a number of birds, such as Eversmann's redstart, butterflies, including Eversmann's parnassian and moths, such as Eversmann's rustic. In the scientific field of

herpetology Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

he is best known for having described two new

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

s, ''

Darevskia praticola ''Darevskia praticola'', the meadow lizard, is a lizard species in the genus ''Darevskia''. It is found in Georgia, Russia, Iran, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the ...

'' and '' Darevskia saxicola''. A species of lizard, '' Crossobamon eversmanni'', is named in his honor.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Eversmann", p. 86).

Works

*1832. Lepidopterorum species nonnullae novae Gubernium Orenburgense incolentes. ''Nouvelles Memoires de la Societe imperiela des Naturalistes de Moscou''. 2: 347–354, 2 cpls. *1841. Nachricht uber einige noch unbekannte Schmetterlinge des ostlichen Russlands. ''Bull. Soc. imp. Nat. Moscou'' 14(l): 18–33, 1 cpl. * (families Tenthredinidae and Uroceratae) *1848. Beschreibung einiger neuen Falter Russlands. ''Bull. Soc. imp. Nat. Moscou''. 21 (3): 205–232. * (family Sphegidae) *1851. Description de quelques nouvelles espèces de Lépidoptères de la Russie. ''Bull. Soc. imp. Nat. Moscou''. 24 (2): 610–644. *1854. Beiträge zur Lepidopterologie Russlands. ''Bull. Soc. imp. Nat. Moscou.'' 27 (3): 174–205, 1 pl.

References

External links

*Eversmann E (1840)
"''Mittheilungen ueber einige neue und einige weniger gekannte Säugethiere Russlands'' "
''Bulletin de la Société impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou'' 13 (1): 3-59. (in German).

Works

References

External links

Further reading