Johannes Theodor Reinhardt (3 December 1816, in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ...
– 23 October 1882, in
Frederiksberg
Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is formally an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the City of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of ...
) was a
Danish 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 kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
and
herpetologist. The son of
Johannes Christopher Hagemann Reinhardt.
Biography
He participated as botanist in the first
Galathea Expedition (1845—1847). In 1848 he became a
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
at the ''Kongelige Naturhistoriske Museum'' in Copenhagen (now
University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum). He taught classes in
zoology
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 kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...
at the ''
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet'' (1856–1878) and at the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
(1861–1878). In 1854 he received the title of professor.
[Darwinarkivet]
Biographies; Johannes Theodor Reinhardt.
During the 1840s and 1850s he periodically worked in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
as an assistant to
palaeontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...
Peter Wilhelm Lund (1801–1880). He was an early supporter of
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended f ...
’s theory of evolution, and from his research of extinct species, was critical of
George Cuvier
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in nat ...
's concept of "anti-evolutionary catastrophism".
[
With Christian Frederik Lütken (1827–1901), he was co-author of ''Bidrag til Kundskab om Brasiliens Padder og Krybdyr'' (Contributions to the knowledge of Brazilian amphibians and ]reptiles
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocepha ...
).
He described 25 new species of reptiles, some with Lütken.
In 1848, Hermann Schlegel
Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German ornithologist, herpetologist and ichthyologist.
Early life and education
Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimulate ...
named the Calabar "python", ''Calabaria reinhardtii'', in his honor. Reinhardt's caecilian, '' Mimosiphonops reinhardti'', was named for him in 1992, more than 100 years after he had collected the holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
.
See also
* :Taxa named by Johannes Theodor Reinhardt
References
External links
*
*
1816 births
1882 deaths
Danish zoologists
Danish herpetologists
Scientists from Copenhagen
{{Zoologist-stub