François Mocquard (27 October 1834 – 19 March 1917) was a French

herpetologist 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 ...

born in Leffond,

Haute-Saône Haute-Saône (; Arpitan: ''Hiôta-Sona''; English: Upper Saône) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of northeastern France. Named after the river Saône, it had a population of 235,313 in 2019.Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerl ...

. Subsequently, he earned degrees in

physical sciences Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". Definition Phy ...

(1862),

mathematical science The mathematical sciences are a group of areas of study that includes, in addition to mathematics, those academic disciplines that are primarily mathematical in nature but may not be universally considered subfields of mathematics proper. Statisti ...

s (1865) and medicine (1873). Despite being middle-aged, he made a career change, and began studying

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

in the laboratory of

Alphonse Milne-Edwards Alphonse Milne-Edwards (Paris, 13 October 1835 – Paris, 21 April 1900) was a French mammalogist, ornithologist, and carcinologist. He was English in origin, the son of Henri Milne-Edwards and grandson of Bryan Edwards, a Jamaican planter who se ...

(1835-1900) at the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

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 ...

. In 1884 he earned his doctorate of sciences with a thesis on the structure of the stomach in

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s, afterwards working as an assistant in the

ichthyology Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octob ...

and

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 ...

department at the museum. During his career he described numerous herpetological

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

, most notably species from

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain ''Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includi ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. In addition, he has several species named after him, including reptiles, '' Alluaudina mocquardi'', ''

Mochlus ''Mochlus'' is a genus of skinks, lizards in the family Scincidae. The genus is endemic to Africa. Description Skinks of the genus ''Mochlus'' are cylindrical in shape and robust. They get the common name "writhing skinks" from the side-to-si ...

mocquardi'', '' Tretanorhinus mocquardi'', ''

Tropidophorus ''Tropidophorus'' is a genus of semiaquatic lizards in the skink family (Scincidae), found in Indochina, Borneo, Sulawesi, and the Philippines. They are sometimes known as water skinks or waterside skinks.SeIUCN searchresults for ''Tropidopho ...

mocquardii'', and '' Xenotyphlops mocquardi'' ; and amphibians, '' Mantidactylus mocquardi'' and ''

Mertensophryne mocquardi ''Mertensophryne mocquardi'' (common names: Mocquards toad, Mocquard's toad) is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to Kenya and known from Mount Kenya, the Kinangop Plateau, and the highlands surrounding Nairobi. The spe ...

''.

Written works

*''Recherches anatomiques sur l'estomac des crustaces podophtalmaires'' (1883) – Anatomical research on the stomach of Podophthalmia. *''Note sur quelques reptiles du cap Blanc'' (1896) – Notes on some reptiles of Cap Blanc. *''Recherches sur la faune herpetologique des Iles de Borneo et de Palawan'' (1890) – Research on herpetological fauna from

and

Palawan Palawan (), officially the Province of Palawan ( cyo, Probinsya i'ang Palawan; tl, Lalawigan ng Palawan), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in ...

. *''Notes sur quelques reptiles de Tanga, don de M. Gierra'' (1897) – Notes on some reptiles of Tanga. *''Notes herpetologiques'' (1897) – Herpetological notes. *''Le droit de la France de pecher le homard à Terre-Neuve au point de vue scientifique'' (1899) – The right of France to fish for

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

from a scientific viewpoint. *''Quelques essais de pisciculture en eau douce'' (1902) – Some essays on freshwater pisciculture. *''Synopsis des familles, genres et espèces des reptiles écailleux et des batraciens de Madagascar'' (1909) – Synopsis of families, genera and species involving scaly reptiles and amphibians of

. *''Sur un nerf cardiaque naissant des ganglions cérébroïdes chez la langouste'' (1912) – On a cardiac nerve arising from the cerebroid ganglia in lobster. *''Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amerique centrale. Recherches zoologiques. Troisième partie, Etudes sur les reptiles et les batraciens'' – Scientific mission to Mexico and in Central America. Zoological research. Third part, studies on the reptiles and the amphibians. by Auguste Dumeril,

Marie Firmin Bocourt Marie Firmin Bocourt (19 April 1819 – 4 February 1904) was a French zoologist and artist. As a young man, he worked as a preparateur for the zoologist Gabriel Bibron (1805–1848), later serving as a museum artist. In 1861, he was sent to Tha ...

, François Mocquard,

Paul Brocchi Paul Louis Antoine Brocchi (2 May 1838 – 12 August 1898) was a French naturalist and agronomist born in Nancy. In 1875, he received his degree in science at the Sorbonne with a thesis on decapods under the guidance of Henri Milne-Edwards (1800� ...

.
Softcover, Antiquariaat Junk.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mocquard, Francois People from Haute-Saône 1834 births 1917 deaths French herpetologists University of Paris alumni National Museum of Natural History (France) people