Jan Versluys (1 September 1873 in

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

– 22 January 1939 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) was a Dutch

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 ...

. He studied biology at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

, and afterwards participated on a scientific voyage to the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

aboard the vessel ''Chazalie''. In 1898 he obtained his doctorate from the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...

, then in 1899/1900 served as an assistant to

Max Carl Wilhelm Weber Max Carl Wilhelm Weber van Bosse or Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (5 December 1852, in Bonn – 7 February 1937, in Eerbeek) was a German-Dutch zoologist and biogeographer. Weber studied at the University of Bonn, then at the Humboldt University in Be ...

on the Siboga Expedition to the

Netherlands East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

. As a result of the mission, he published a monograph on Gorgonians, titled "''Die Gorgoniden der Siboga-Expedition''". Later on in his career, he worked as a professor of zoology at the universities of

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

(from 1916) and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(from 1925). Siboga expedition group portrait in laboratory

Taxa with the epithet of ''versluysi'' commemorate his name, an example being the

amphipod Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...

subspecies ''Niphargus longicaudatus versluysi''.

Selected works

* ''Die mittlere und äussere Ohrspähre der Lacertilia und Rhynchocephalia'' (dissertation), 1898 – The middle and outer ear-sphere of

Lacertilia 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 althou ...

and

Rhynchocephalia Rhynchocephalia (; ) is an order of lizard-like reptiles that includes only one living species, the tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') of New Zealand. Despite its current lack of diversity, during the Mesozoic rhynchocephalians were a diverse g ...

. * ''Die Gorgoniden der Siboga-Expedition'' — English publication by

Charles Cleveland Nutting Charles Cleveland Nutting (May 25, 1858 – January 23, 1927 in Iowa City, Iowa) was an American zoologist, born in Jacksonville, Illinois. He graduated from Blackburn University (1880) and received the M. A. degree from the same institutio ...

a
"''The Gorgonacea of the Siboga expedition''"
(1902–11). * ''Entwicklung der Columella auris bei den Lacertiliern'', 1904 – Development of the columella auris in Lacertilia. * ''Ueber Kaumuskeln bei Lacertilia'', 1904 – On the

masseter In human anatomy, the masseter is one of the muscles of mastication. Found only in mammals, it is particularly powerful in herbivores to facilitate chewing of plant matter. The most obvious muscle of mastication is the masseter muscle, since it ...

of Lacertilia. * ''Die Salamander und die ursprünglichsten vierbeinigen Landwirbeltiere'', 1909 – The

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

and the most primitive four-legged land vertebrates. * ''Der Schädel des Skelettes von Trachodon annectens im Senckenberg-Museum'', 1921 – The skull of the skeleton of '' Trachodon annectens'' at the

Senckenberg Museum The Naturmuseum Senckenberg is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its type in Germany. The museum contains a large and diverse collection of birds with 90,000 bird skins, 5,050 egg sets, 17,0 ...

. * ''Die Verwandtschaft der Merostomata mit den Arachnida und den anderen Abteilungen der Arthropoda'' (with Reinhard Demoll), 1921 – The relationship of

Merostomata Xiphosura () is an order of arthropods related to arachnids. They are more commonly known as horseshoe crabs (a name applied more specifically to the only extant family, Limulidae). They first appeared in the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician). Current ...

with

arachnid Arachnida () is a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals (arthropods), in the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, camel spiders, whip spiders and vinegaroon ...

s and the other divisions of

Arthropoda Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

. * ''Die Abstammung und Differenzierung der Gigantostraken'', 1923 – The origin and differentiation of gigantostraca.Jan Versluys
de.Wikisource

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Versluys, Jan 1873 births 1939 deaths Scientists from Groningen (city) University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Vienna Academic staff of Ghent University Dutch zoologists Dutch herpetologists Dutch expatriates in Austria Dutch expatriates in Belgium