Johan Severin Holten (11 July 1770 – 30 December 1805) was a Danish zoological writer, brother of Nicolai Holten, who was to become a

Geheimrat ''Geheimrat'' was the title of the highest advising officials at the Imperial, royal or princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire, who jointly formed the ''Geheimer Rat'' reporting to the ruler. The term remained in use during subsequent monarchic r ...

, a high-ranking advisor at the imperial courts of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

Biography

He was the son of a pharmacist in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northern ...

, Johannes Holten (1741–1816) and his wife Anna Margrethe, born Abildgaard (1747–1826). He was born in Helsingør on 11 July 1770, and was named Johan after his father, but preferred to be known as Hans. During his upbringing and in his youth, he lived in the house of the Pentecostal priest P.D. Bast who was married to his aunt. In 1788, he became a student of the Nykøbing School, where he studied zoology. Later, he became the curator of scientific collections made by Prince Christian Frederik, who was later to become

Christian VIII of Denmark Christian VIII (18 September 1786 – 20 January 1848) was King of Denmark from 1839 to 1848 and, as Christian Frederick, King of Norway in 1814. Christian Frederick was the eldest son of Hereditary Prince Frederick, a younger son of King Frederic ...

. In 1801 he took up the post of science tutor for Prince Christian's younger brother, Prince Ferdinand, and at this time he lived at the royal residence of

Sorgenfri Palace Sorgenfri Palace ( da, Sorgenfri Slot; lit. "Sorrow free", a direct calque of Sans Souci) is a royal residence of the Danish monarch, located in Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality, on the east side of Lyngby Kongevej, in the northern suburbs of Copenhag ...

. In 1804 he accompanied the young prince on a journey to Germany and he was also the prince's librarian. In 1799 while at Helsingør, he caught a rare fish, a

John Dory John Dory, St Pierre or Peter's fish, refers to fish of the genus ''Zeus'', especially ''Zeus faber'', of widespread distribution. It is an edible demersal coastal marine fish with a laterally compressed olive-yellow body which has a large dark ...

(''Zeus faber''), and noticed some parasites on the gills which he called "gillworms". He went on to provide the first description of these, calling them '' Chondracanthus merluccii'', and later provided the first description of another gillworm from a

flying fish The Exocoetidae are a family of marine fish in the order Beloniformes class Actinopterygii, known colloquially as flying fish or flying cod. About 64 species are grouped in seven to nine genera. While they cannot fly in the same way a bird do ...

, which he called ''Lernaea exocoeti'', and which is now known as ''

Pennella exocoeti ''Pennella exocoeti'' is a large ectoparasitic copepod, a specialist parasite of flying fish. The adult female copepod clings to the fish's gills or skin and feeds on its body fluids. Taxonomy ''Pennella exocoeti'' was first described by the Da ...

''. Holten's only literary work is the ''Fauna or Animal History of Denmark and Norway'', of which only 1 booklet (mammal) was published (1800), and a systematic auction catalog of Johann Hieronymus Chemnitz's collection of cones (1802). On 19 February 1796, he married Fredensborg Juliane Marie Wittendorff (27 October 1770 – 13 March 1838), daughter of the royal cantor P.A. Wittendorff. Holten died in Copenhagen on 30 December 1805.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holten, Hans Severin Danish biologists 1770 births 1805 deaths People from Helsingør 18th-century Danish scientists 18th-century biologists 19th-century Danish scientists 19th-century biologists