Sunder Lal Hora (22 May 1896 – 8 December 1955) was an Indian

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

known for his

biogeographic 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, ...

theory on the affinities of Western Ghats and

Indomalayan The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Indi ...

fish

forms Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data * ...

Life

Hora was born at

Hafizabad Hafizabad (Urdu and pa, ) is a city and capital of Hafizabad District located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 31st largest city of Pakistan. It is also a Tehsil. Ancient history Hafizabad is an old city in Punjab, Pakistan. In 327 BC, duri ...

in the Punjab (modern day

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

) on 2 May 1896. He schooled in Jullunder before college at Lahore. He met

Thomas Nelson Annandale Thomas Nelson Annandale CIE FRSE (15 June 1876, in Edinburgh – 10 April 1924, in Calcutta) was a British zoologist, entomologist, anthropologist, and herpetologist. He was the founding director of the Zoological Survey of India. Life The ...

who visited his college in Lahore in 1919 and was invited to the Zoological Survey of India. In 1921 he became in-charge of ichthyology and herpetology and in 1947 became Superintendent of the Z.S.I. and then Director after Baini Prashad moved to become an advisor to the government. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 1929. His proposers were

James Hartley Ashworth James Hartley Ashworth FRS FRSE DSc SZS (2 May 1874 – 4 February 1936) was a British marine zoologist. Life See He was born on 2, May 1874, in Accrington in Lancashire, the only son of James Ashworth. He spent most of his early life in Bu ...

, John Stephenson,

Charles Henry O'Donoghue Charles Henry O'Donoghue FRSE FZS (23 September 1885 – 28 November 1961) was an English zoologist who studied molluscs, a malacologist. His publications mostly deal with sea slugs and he also named a number of Bryozoans. A collection of over 70 ...

and James Ritchie. He died on 8 December 1955.

Works

The ''

Satpura hypothesis Sunder Lal Hora (22 May 1896 – 8 December 1955) was an Indian ichthyologist known for his biogeographic theory on the affinities of Western Ghats and Indomalayan fish forms. Life Hora was born at Hafizabad in the Punjab (modern day P ...

'', a zoo-geographical hypothesis proposed by him that suggests that the central Indian

Satpura Range The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and these ...

of hills acted as a bridge for the gradual migrations of Malayan fauna into the peninsula and the Western Ghats of India. He supported the theory on the basis of torrential fishes which had special suckers to hold onto rocks. Later research however pointed out that his examples made use of unrelated species showing common characters that were independently evolved, that is they were examples of

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

. Hora was also among the Indian pioneers of fish and wildlife conservation and pointed out the effect of dams on the migrations of riverine fishes and noted the poor design of

fish ladder A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as movemen ...

s in Indian dams. A genus of

ricefish The ricefishes are a family (Adrianichthyidae) of small ray-finned fish that are found in fresh and brackish waters from India to Japan and out into the Malay Archipelago, most notably Sulawesi (where the Lake Poso and Lore Lindu species are kn ...

, '' Horaichthys'' ("Hora's Fish"), was created in his honour and placed as a sole member of the family ''Horaichthyidae''. The species is now placed in the genus ''

Oryzias ''Oryzias'' is a genus of ricefishes native to fresh and brackish water in east and south Asia. Some species are widespread and the Japanese rice fish (''O. latipes'') is commonly used in science as a model organism, while others have very smal ...

'' and the family is no longer considered valid. The catfish genus ''

Horabagrus ''Horabagrus'' is a genus of catfish in the family Horabagridae endemic to rivers in the Western Ghats in Kerala and Karnataka, India. ''H. brachysoma'' is an important food fish and members of this genus can be found in the aquarium trade. T ...

'' is named after the Indian zoologist Sunder Lal Hora. ''Horabagrus'' is usually classified under the family

Bagridae The Bagridae are a family of catfish that are native to Africa ('' Bagrus'') and Asia (all other genera) from Japan to Borneo. It includes about 245 species. These fish are commonly known as naked catfishes or bagrid catfishes. Many large bagrid ...

, but there are disagreements.

Notes

References

* Hora, S. L. 1944. On the Malayan affinities of the freshwater fish fauna of Peninsular India, and its bearing on the probable age of the Garo-Rajmahal Gap. Proc. Natl. Inst. Sci. India, 10(2):423–439. * Hora, S. L. 1949. Satpura Hypothesis of the Distribution of the Malayan Fauna and Flora to Peninsular India. Proc. Natl. Inst. Sci. India, 15(8):309–314. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hora, Sunder Lal 20th-century Indian zoologists 1896 births 1955 deaths Naturalists of British India Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Indian ichthyologists Indian scientists 20th-century Indian scientists Scientists from West Bengal

Life

Works

See also

Notes

References