Salomon Müller (7 April 1804 – 29 December 1864) was a German

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. He was born in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, and died in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. 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 Rijksmus ...

, he was sent by

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

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'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

. 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 in 1826, then journeyed to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and

Timor Timor (, , ) is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is Indonesia–Timor-Leste border, divided between the sovereign states of Timor-Leste in the eastern part and Indonesia in the ...

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

Kupang Kupang (, ), formerly known as Koepang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. At the 2020 Indonesian census, 2020 Census, it had a population of 442,758;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. the official estimate as o ...

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

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, 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 list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

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 stimulated ...

named ''

Aspidomorphus muelleri ''Aspidomorphus muelleri'', Müller’s crown snake , is a species of snake of the family Elapidae. The snake is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island ...

'' (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 ''Typhlops'' is a genus of blind snakes in the family Typhlopidae. The genus is endemic to the West Indies. Some species which were formerly placed in the genus ''Typhlops'' have been moved to the genera ''Afrotyphlops, Amerotyphlops, Anilios, ...

'' (Müller's blind snake) in 1839, all in honor of Salomon Müller. (Müller in turn named ''

Tomistoma schlegelii ''Tomistoma'' is a genus of gavialid crocodilians. They are noted for their long narrow snouts used to catch fish, similar to the gharial. ''Tomistoma'' contains one extant (living) member, the false gharial (''Tomistoma schlegelii''), as well ...

'' (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 National Museum of Natural History (France), Muséum national d'histoire naturelle from 1801 to 1812, when he became pr ...

Gabriel Bibron Gabriel Bibron (20 October 1805 – 27 March 1848) was a French zoologist and herpetologist. He was born in Paris. The son of an employee of the Museum national d'histoire naturelle, he had a good foundation in natural history and was ...

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. Dum ...

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