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Russell's Viper
Russell's viper (''Daboia russelii''), is a venomous snake in the family Viperidae native to the Indian subcontinent and one of the big four snakes in India. It was described in 1797 by George Shaw and Frederick Polydore Nodder, and named after Patrick Russell, who wrote about it in his 1796 work ''An account of Indian serpents, collected on the coast of Coromandel''. Taxonomy English naturalist George Shaw—with illustrator Frederick Polydore Nodder—in ''The Naturalist's Miscellany: Or, Coloured Figures Of Natural Objects; Drawn and Described Immediately From Nature'' formally described the species in 1797 as ''Coluber russelii'', from a specimen presented to the British Museum by Scottish herpetologist Patrick Russell. Russell had written of the species in his 1796 work ''An account of Indian serpents, collected on the coast of Coromandel'', confirming its highly venomous nature by experimenting on chickens and dogs. He added the native people called it ''katuka retula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Shaw (biologist)
George Kearsley Shaw (10 December 1751 – 22 July 1813) was an English botanist and zoologist. Life Shaw was born at Bierton, Buckinghamshire, and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, receiving his M.A. in 1772. He took up the profession of medical practitioner. In 1786 he became the assistant lecturer in botany at the University of Oxford. He was a co-founder of the Linnean Society in 1788, and became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1789. In 1791 Shaw became assistant keeper of the natural history department at the British Museum, succeeding Edward Whitaker Gray as keeper in 1806. He found that most of the items donated to the museum by Hans Sloane were in very bad condition. Medical and anatomical material was sent to the museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, but many of the stuffed animals and birds had deteriorated and had to be burnt. He was succeeded after his death by his assistant Charles Konig. Works Shaw published one of the first English descriptions with s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
