Salomon Müller (7 April 1804 – 29 December 1864) was a German naturalist. He was born in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, and died in Freiburg im Breisgau. Müller was the son of a saddler in

. Along with

Heinrich Boie Heinrich Boie (4 May 1794, Meldorf, Holstein – 4 September 1827, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia) was a German zoologist. He was the brother of Friedrich Boie. In the field of herpetology they described 49 new species of reptiles and several ne ...

and

Heinrich Christian Macklot Heinrich Christian Macklot (20 October 1799, Frankfurt am Main – 12 May 1832) was a German naturalist. He studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg, earning his doctorate in 1822. Later that year, he found employment at the Rijksm ...

, he was sent by

Coenraad Jacob Temminck Coenraad Jacob Temminck (; 31 March 1778 – 30 January 1858) was a Dutch people, Dutch Aristocracy (class), aristocrat, Zoology, zoologist and museum director. Biography Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born on 31 March 1778 in Amsterdam in the Dut ...

to collect specimens in the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...

. Here, he worked as an assistant for the ''Natuurkundige Commissie'' (Commission for Natural Sciences), an organization that he eventually became a member of.Nationaal Herbarium Nederland
(biography). Müller arrived in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

in 1826, then journeyed to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

in 1828 aboard the ''Triton''. Beginning in October 1828, he remained at the port city of

Kupang Kupang ( id, Kota Kupang, ), formerly known as Koepang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. At the 2020 C ensus, it had a population of 442,758; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 455,850. It is the largest ci ...

, penetrating the interior of Timor during the following year. In 1831 he was stationed in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, and later explored western

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

from 1833 to 1835.

Eponyms

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 '' Aspidomorphus muelleri'' (Müller's crown snake) and '' Sphenomorphus muelleri'' (Müller's forest skink) in 1837,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Mueller, S.", p. 184). and '' Typhlops muelleri'' (Müller's blind snake) in 1839, all in honor of Salomon Müller. (Müller in turn named ''

Tomistoma schlegelii The false gharial (''Tomistoma schlegelii''), also known by the names Malayan gharial, Sunda gharial and tomistoma is a freshwater crocodilian of the family Gavialidae native to Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and Java. It is listed as Vu ...

'' (the False gharial) in 1838 in honor of Hermann Schlegel.) Similarly

André Marie Constant Duméril André Marie Constant Duméril (1 January 1774 – 14 August 1860) was a French zoologist. He was professor of anatomy at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle from 1801 to 1812, when he became professor of herpetology and ichthyology. His ...

, Gabriel Bibron and

Auguste Duméril Auguste Henri André Duméril (30 November 1812 – 12 November 1870) was a French zoologist. His father, André Marie Constant Duméril (1774-1860), was also a zoologist. In 1869 he was elected as a member of the Académie des sciences. Duméril ...

named '' Lycodon muelleri'' (Java wolf snake) in 1854 in honor of Müller.

Selected publications

*''Reizen en onderzoekingen in Sumatra, gedaan op last der Nederlandsche Indische regering, tusschen de jaren 1833 en 1838'', 1855. (in Dutch). *''Reizen en onderzoekingen in den Indischen archipel, gedaan op last der Nederlandsche Indische regering, tusschen de jaren 1828 en 1836'', 1857.OCLC Classify
(publications). (in Dutch).

References

German ornithologists German naturalists 1804 births 1864 deaths Scientists from Heidelberg {{Ornithologist-stub