Raúl Adolfo Ringuelet Ph.D. (1914 – 1982) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

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 ...

. Ringuelet published more than 100 scientific papers on the

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

limnology Limnology ( ; from Greek λίμνη, ''limne'', "lake" and λόγος, ''logos'', "knowledge") is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristi ...

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

, and

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n freshwaters, and was a mentor to a whole generation of Argentine biologists.http://www.losquesevan.com/palabras-de-antano-raul-a.-ringuelet.702c , Palabras de antaño: Raúl A. Ringuelet Ringuelet's research interests were exceptionally broad, including numerous studies of

leeches Leeches are segmented parasitism, parasitic or Predation, predatory worms that comprise the Class (biology), subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the Oligochaeta, oligochaetes, which include the earthwor ...

(Hirudinea), harvestmen spiders (

Opiliones The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an order of arachnids colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs. , over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered worldwide, although the total number of ext ...

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

chironomid The Chironomidae (informally known as chironomids, nonbiting midges, or lake flies) comprise a family of nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Many species ...

flies and

Neotropical fishes The freshwater fish of tropical South and Central America represent one of the most diverse and extreme aquatic ecosystems on Earth, with more than 5,600 species, representing about 10% all living vertebrate species. The exceptional diversity of sp ...

. The UNLP is named in his honor. Ringuelet was born in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

, September 10, 1914. He graduated in 1939 with a Doctor of Natural Sciences at the Institute of Museum, Universidad Nacional de La Plata
(UNLP)
http://www.efn.uncor.edu/dep/divbioeco/DivAni1/aracnol/ringuelet.html , Luis E. Acosta. Notas biográficas de aracnólogos argentinos Ringuelet published his first scientific work in 1936. Ringuelet went on to publish 17 works of

Arachnology Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of sp ...

, with one relating to the Order Scorpiones and the others to the Order Opiliones, 44 papers on the Hirudinea

, 24 on various

, and 14 specifically on

Biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

. Ringuelet held several professorships at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata: Adjunct professor of general Zoology (1944–1948), Acting Professor (1946–1947) and Head (1947–1955) Invertebrate Zoology, Professor Acting Zoogeography (1958), Vertebrate Zoology Professor (1957–1966), Professor of Ecology and Zoogeography (1960, per vitam in 1972) and Professor of Limnology (1969–1978). He was also Professor of Systematic Zoology in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Buenos Aires (1956–1964). In recognition of his career, the National University of La Plata was appointed Extraordinary Professor Emeritus degree (1980). From 1978 until his death Ringuelet was a Senior Researcher at the National Research Council ( CONICET).

Selected publications

Ringuelet, R. A. 1948. Una nueva Aegla del nordeste argentino. Not. Mus. La Plata 13 Zool. (111): 203-208, 3 láms
/nowiki>.] *Ringuelet, R. A. 1949. Consideraciones sobre las relaciones filogenéticas entre las especies del género Regla Leach (Decápodos Anomuros). Not. Mus. La Plata 14 Zool. (120): 111-118. *Ringuelet, R.A. 1959. Los aracnidos Argentinos del orden Opiliones. Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia." Ciencias Zoologicas 5(2), 127–439, figs 1–62, plates 1–20.
Ringuelet, R. A. 1961. Rasgos fundamentales de la Zoogeografía de la Argentina. Physis 22 (63): 151-170.Ringuelet, R. A. 1968. Biogéographie des Copépodes d’eau douce de l’Argentine. Biologie de l` Amérique Australe 4: 261-267.Ringuelet, R. A., 1975. Zoogeografía y Ecología de los peces de aguas continentales de la Argentina y consideraciones sobre las áreas ictiológicas de América del Sur. Ecosur 2 (3): 122, 10.
*Ringuelet, R. A. 1981. Some advances in the knowledge of Neotropical Leeches. Limnobios 2 (4): 226. *Ringuelet, R. A. 1980. Aportes al conocimiento de las sanguijuelas del género Haementeria De Filippi, 1849 (Hirudinea, Glossiphoniidae). Limnobios 2 (1), 50-53. *Ringuelet, R. A. 1980. Un Hirudíneo con marsupio de la región andina de Jujuy, Argentina (Maiabdella Batracophila n. g., n. sp., Glossiphoniidae) Limnobios 2 (1), 68-71, 2 figs. *López, H. L., R. C. Menni, & R. A. Ringuelet, 1981. Bibliografía Ictiológica Argentina (1965–1981). Biología Acuática, La Plata, 1: 1-100.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ringuelet, Raul Adolfo 20th-century Argentine zoologists Biogeographers Argentine ecologists Argentine limnologists 1914 births 1982 deaths Arachnologists