Fritz Nieden (1883 – 1942) was a German
zoologist
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 ...
who specialized in African
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 worked as a zoologist at the ''
Museum für Naturkunde
The Natural History Museum (german: Museum für Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...
'' in
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 ...
. His name is associated with Nieden's dwarf skink, ''
Panaspis megalurus''. In 1911 he was the first to describe ''
Callulina kreffti'', a
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 ...
of
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
, which until 2004 was the only known species of the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
''
Callulina
''Callulina'' (commonly known as the warty frogs) is a small genus of frogs in the family Brevicipitidae with nine members in Tanzania and Kenya. Originally ''Callulina'' was thought to be monotypic and widely distributed through Eastern Arc Mou ...
''.
The Sagala caecilian, ''
Boulengerula niedeni
''Boulengerula niedeni'', the Sagalla caecilian, is a worm-like amphibian first described in 2005. The species was described from a specimen discovered on Sagala Hill, an isolated mountain block of the Taita Hills in Kenya, and is not known fr ...
'', is named after him.
[
]
Selected writings
*
Die Amphibienfauna von Kamerun
' (1908), Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 3: 491–518 ("''Amphibian
Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...
fauna of Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
''")
*''Die Reptilien (außer den Schlangen) und Amphibien'', 1910 - Reptiles
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizar ...
(other than snakes) and amphibians.
*''Gymnophoina (Amphibia apoda)'', 1913 - Gymnophiona
Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform or serpentine amphibians. They mostly live hidden in the ground and in stream substrates, making them the least familiar order of amphibians. Caecilians are mostly distributed in the tropics of ...
( caecilians).
*''Amphibia : Anura I subordo Aglossa und Phanerglossa, sectio 1 Arcifera'', 1923 - Anura I, suborders Aglossa and Phaneroglossa.
*''Amphibia. Anura II. Engystomatidae ... Mit 55 Abbildungen'', 1926 - Anura II, Engystomatidae.WorldCat Identities
(list of published works).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nieden, Fritz
German herpetologists
1942 deaths
1883 births
20th-century German zoologists