Dr. Juan Arturo Rivero Quintero (March 5, 1923 in Santurce, Puerto Rico – March 3, 2014) was a Puerto Rican biologist who founded the

Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo, officially named the Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo of Puerto Rico, also known as the Mayagüez Zoo, was a zoo located in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, owned by the Government of Puerto Rico and operated by the Department of Natural ...

at the University of Puerto Rico's Mayagüez Campus.

Education

Dr. Rivero obtained a Bachelor of Science in

Agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

from the

University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) in Spanish (also referred to as Colegio and CAAM in allusion to its former name), is a public land-grant university in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. UPRM ...

in 1945. In 1942, he joined the Beta-Activo chapter of

Phi Sigma Alpha Phi Sigma Alpha (), commonly known as La Sigma, is a Puerto Rican fraternities and sororities, Puerto Rican fraternity originally established as the Sigma Delta Alpha Fraternity (Sociedad de Amigos) on October 22, 1928, at the University of Puert ...

fraternity. In 1951, he obtained an M.S. from Harvard University, followed by a Ph.D. from that same institution in 1953.

Academic career

After obtaining his bachelor's degree, Rivero served as an assistant plant physiologist, instructor, assistant professor and associate professor before becoming a full professor of biology at UPR-Mayagüez in 1958. In 1950, he participated in the expedition to the Upper Orinoco, which will serve as the basis for his doctoral studies. After founding the UPR-Mayagüez Zoo in 1954, he served as its first director, as well as founder and director of the UPR's Institute of Marine Biology. From 1959 to 1960 he served as director of the Biology Department and from 1962 to 1966, as dean of erts and sciences, oversaw the work of over 200 faculty members and a two million dollar annual budget. Between 1966 and 1968, he served as a research associate at Harvard University and visiting scientist at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Investigation.

Other accomplishments

In addition to founding the Mayagüez Zoo, Puerto Rico's only zoological garden, it was named after him in 1998. He discovered over a hundred animal species, particularly

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 ...

s and

reptile 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 rhynchocephalians ( ...

s. He was the founder and first president of the Puerto Rico Zoological Society, as well as of the Association of Island Marine Laboratories. In addition to writing over 200 papers and articles, he wrote numerous books, including: :''Los coquíes de Puerto Rico'' :''El Coquí Dorado de Puerto Rico y otras Ranas de Hábitos Reproductivos Peculiares'' :''Anfibios y Reptiles de Puerto Rico'' :''Anfibios y Reptiles de Nuestro Folklore'' :''Los Machos, las Hembras y los Intersexos'' :''Biología del Sexo'' :''Principios de Evolución Orgánica'' :''Los Helechos Cuernos de Alce o Platicerios'' :''Salientia de Venezuela'' :''Expedición de la UPR a las Selvas del Alto Orinoco 1950'' :''El Dolor de la Espalda Baja'' He wrote the

"Brindis" or toast.

Species named after Dr. Rivero

Several species have been named to honor Dr. Rivero's contributions to science, including: :'' Geomelania riveroi'' (snail) :'' Hemitrochus riveroi'' (snail) :'' Glomeridesmus riveroi'' (miriapod) :''

Ballophilus riveroi ''Ballophilus'' is a genus of centipedes in the family Ballophilidae. It includes the following species: * '' Ballophilus alluaudi'' * '' Ballophilus australiae'' * ''Ballophilus braunsi'' * '' Ballophilus clavicornis'' * '' Ballophilus comast ...

'' (miriapod) :'' Prestherapis riveroi'' (frog) :''

Atractus riveroi ''Atractus riveroi'', Rivero's ground snake, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species can be found in Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Ve ...

'' (snake)Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Rivero, J. A.", p. 222). :'' Hyla riveroi'' (frog) :'' Processa riveroi'' (crustacean) :''

Leptodactylus riveroi ''Leptodactylus riveroi'' is a species of frog in the family Leptodactylidae. It is also known as Rivero's white-lipped frog. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and possibly Peru. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist ...

'' (frog) :'' Marshallela riveroi'' ( treehopper) :''

Eleutherodactylus juanariveroi ''Eleutherodactylus juanariveroi'', or the ''Puerto Rican wetland frog'' ( es, coquí llanero), is an endangered species of coqui, a frog species, endemic to Puerto Rico. It was discovered in 2005 by Neftalí Rios, and was named after Puerto Ri ...

'' (frog)

References

External links