Ludwig Lorenz von Liburnau (26 August 1856,

Fiume Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

- 9 December 1943, St. Gilgen) was an Austrian

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 ...

. He was the son of naturalist Josef Roman Lorenz von Liburnau (1825-1911). In 1879 he obtained his PhD from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

, receiving his habilitation 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 ...

in 1898. From 1880 to 1922 he was associated with the ''

Naturhistorisches Museum The Natural History Museum Vienna (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most important natural history museums worldwide. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museum ...

'' 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 ...

. In 1899 he was the first scientist to provide analysis of '' Hadropithecus stenognathus'' (an extinct species of

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are endemic to the island of Madagas ...

), a study based on a

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

discovered by fossil collector Franz Sikora at Andrahomana cave in southeastern

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. At the time, Lorenz believed the specimen to be the mandible of an anthropoid primate species. The North Island kaka ('' Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis''), a nationally endangered bird from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, was named by Lorenz in 1896. The western avahi (''Avahi occidentalis''), a species he described in 1898, is sometimes referred to as "Lorenz von Liburnau’s woolly lemur".IUCN Red List
Western avahi

Publications

* ''Über einige Reste ausgestorbener Primaten von Madagaskar''. — Denkschr., 70, S. 1 — 15, 3 Abb., 3 Taf., Wien 1900. * ''Über Hadropithecus stenognathus Lz. nebst Bemerkungen zu einigen anderen ausgestorbenen Primaten von Madagaskar''. — Denkschr., 72, S. 1 — 12, 2 Taf., Wien 1901.

References

Loew_Franz_ex_Zapfe.pdf
(biographical information in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lorenz von Libernau, Ludwig 1856 births 1943 deaths People from Rijeka Austrian zoologists