John Mitchell (Francis John Mitchell, 1929–1970) was a biologist and curator with a special interest in herpetology. Active from South Australia, he was vice president of the state's

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and employed at

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

. His initial positions at the museum related to the reptile and

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

collections, leading to his role as head curator of the

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with c ...

s in 1965. An active and competitive skin diver who was involved in ocean sports and associations, Mitchell was able to align these interests by obtaining specimens from spear and big game fisherman.

Work, legacy, and honors

Mitchell discovered and described at least a dozen species of reptiles, including the Black-palmed Rock Monitor, ''

Varanus glebopalma The black-palmed rock monitor (''Varanus glebopalma'') is a member of the Varanidae family found in Australia. Also known as the twilight monitor or the long-tailed rock monitor, it is a member of the subgenus ''Odatria'', and is found in the n ...

''. At least one species was named after Francis Mitchell, the North-west Bearded Dragon, ''Pogona mitchelli'' Badham 1976''.''

References

1929 births 1970 deaths Australian herpetologists 20th-century Australian zoologists {{Australia-scientist-stub