“Rhamphostoma schlegelii,” now Tomistoma schlegelii
Plate 106 in Bilder-Atlas zur wissenschaftlich-populären Naturgeschichte der Wirbelthiere, Wien, 1867
via BHL
The Tomistoma, aka False Gharial, is an endangered freshwater crocodilian of the family Gavialidae native to Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra & Java.
#WatercolorWednesday:
Aloys Zötl (Austrian, 1803-87) Les Cécilies [Caecilians*], 1851 Watercolor & ink on paper, 44x54.5cm *#Caecilians (Gymnophiona) are one of the 3 living orders of #amphibians alongside #frogs (Anura) & #salamanders (Urodela). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian
For #WorldTurtleDay on a #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday: what does this unusual 18th c. English portrait have in common with this early 20th c. Ottoman one from Pera Müzesi? More than you may think! 😉Find out more on the blog:
ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for World Turtle Day: an unusual tortoise portrait from 18th Century England, and its connection to Ottoman Turkey https://arthistoryanimalia.com/2023/05/23/animal-art-of-the-day-for-world-turtle-day-an-unusual-tortoise-portrait-from-18th-century-england-and-its-connection-to-ottoman-turkey/
Still Life With a Tortoise, 1743 possibly by Thomas Black (English, 1715-1777) oil on canvas, 74.9 x 96.5 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Tortoise Trainer, 1906 version by Osman Hamdi Bey (Ottoman, 1842-1910) oil on canvas, 221.5 x 120 cm Pera Müzesi
English naturalist Mark Catesby was born #OTD (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749). Here is both his original watercolor study and published print (which he also etched and hand-colored himself) of an American Bullfrog, scientific name now Lithobates catesbeianus in his honor, from his landmark work The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1st ed. 1729-47):
1. c. 1722-6 watercolour and bodycolour heightened with gum arabic on paper, 26.5 x 36.7 cm Royal Collection Trust RCIN 926025
2. Plate 72, v.2, 1734-47 hand-colored lithograph Biodiversity Heritage Library
Book recommendations:
#WorldFrogDay: Maybe this Surinam Horned Frog (Ceratophrys cornuta) wouldn't look so happy if it could read what naturalist George Shaw wrote about it in its description...
"Horned Frog" from The Naturalist's Miscellany, v.3, pl. 76 (1791-2) by George Shaw (English, 1751-1813). Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Here's what Shaw said: "Should inquiry be made, which is the ugliest animal yet known to exist? The creature here represented might perhaps with justice be proposed as an answer: an animal of such prodigious deformity as even to exceed in this respect the Surinam toad...." ☹️
#WorldFrogDay: #DYK that over 1/3 of frog species are currently listed as threatened? That includes #1 on the plate bleow, the Giant Marsupial Frog (Gastrotheca ovifera).
"Batrachia" Plate 68 in Kunstformen der Natur (1899-1904) by Ernst Haeckel (German, 1834-1919). Biodiversity Heritage Library.
1. Notodelphys ovifera (Weinland) now Gastrotheca ovifera (Lichtenstein & Weinland 1854; name revision by Rivero 1961)
2. Hyla meridionalis (Boulenger) authority usually given as (Boettger 1874)
3. Hyla tuberculosa (Boulenger) now Ecnomiohyla tuberculosa
4. Amphignathodon Güntheri or Amphignathodon guntheri (Boulenger) now Gastrotheca guentheri (Boulenger 1882; name revision by Duellman, Maxson & Jesiolowski 1988)
5. Rhacophorus pardalis (Wallace) authority usually given as (Günther 1858)
6. Hylodes lineatus (Schneider) now Craugastor lineatus (Brocchi 1879)
7. Limnodytes erythraeus (Duméril) now Hylarana erythraea (Schlegel 1837)
8. Cerathobatrachus Güntheri or Ceratobatrachus guentheri (Boulenger)
9. Breviceps mossambicus (Peters)
10.Rana pipiens (Linné) now Lithobates pipiens
Happy #WorldFrogDay! #DYK there are currently 7582 species of frogs documented, accounting for 88% of all amphibians?
This happy greenstone frog lives at the American Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately very little info is available about its exact origins beyond it being pre-conquest Mesoamerican; the museum's records list it as having been collected from the Valley of Mexico, Chalco, possibly Veracruz, and added to the collection in 1901. Dimensions: L: 13.5cm W: 16.0cm D: 25.0cm.
Ernst Haeckel was born #OTD (16 Feb 1834 - 9 Aug 1919). Here are two of his Kunstformen der Natur (1904) reptile plates that don't get shared as often, along with keys to the species depicted: Plate 79 Lacertilia (lizards) + Plate 89 Chelonia (turtles).
Key to Plate 79: 1. Cameroon Sailfin Chameleon 2. Chameleon Forest Dragon 3. Flying Dragon 4. Texas Horned Lizard 5. Kuhl's Flying Gecko 6. Common Basilisk 7. Frill-necked Lizard 8. Thorny Devil - 1.Chamaeleon montium (Buchholz) = Trioceros montium/Chamaeleo montium Buchholz, 1874 (See Trioceros montium) 2. Lophyrus tigrinus (Duméril) = Gonocephalus chamaeleontinus Laurenti, 1768 (See Gonocephalus chamaeleontinus) 3. Draconellus volans (Linné) = Draco volans Linnaeus, 1758 (See Draco volans) 4. Phrynosoma cornutum (Wiegmann) = Phrynosoma cornutum (Harlan, 1825) (See Phrynosoma cornutum) 5. Ptychozoon homalocephalum (Kuhl) = Ptychozoon kuhli Stejneger, 1902 (See Ptychozoon kuhli) 6. Basiliscus americanus (Daudin) = Basiliscus basiliscus (Linnaeus, 1758) (See Basiliscus basiliscus) 7. Chlamydosaurus kingii (Gray) = Chlamydosaurus kingii Gray, 1827 (See Chlamydosaurus kingii) 8. Moloch horridus (Gray) = Moloch horridus Gray, 1841 (See Moloch horridus)
Key to Plate 89: 1: Leatherback Turtle 2: Hawksbill Turtle 3: Argentine Snake-necked Turtle 4: Mata Mata 5: Geometric Tortoise 6: Galápagos Tortoise 7: Common Snapping Turtle - 1. Dermatochelys coriacea (Blainville) = Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761) 2. Caretta imbricata (Gray) = Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766) 3. Hydromeda tectifera (Wagler) = Hydromedusa tectifera Cope, 1869 4. Chelys fimbriata (Duméril) = Geochelone nigra (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) 5. Testudo geometrica (Linné) = Psammobates geometricus (Linnaeus, 1758) 6. Testudo elephantina (Duméril) = Dipsochelys dussumieri Gray, 1831 7. Chelydra serpentina (Schweigger) = Chelydra serpentina (Linnaeus, 1758)
January 16h is #AppreciateADragonDay so let's appreciate this wee Flying Dragon Lizard (Draco spp., probably D. viridis) painted in the 19th century:
Marianne North (English, 1830-1890) Flowers and Fruit of the Pomelo, a Branch of Hennah and Flying Lizard, Sarawak, 1876 oil on board H 36.4 x W 45.1 cm [Kew Gardens Marianne North Gallery #MN552]
BTW like their aboreal junglemates the flying snakes and flying frogs, flying draco lizards don't really fly, they glide...but it's still really cool :)
Alfred Russel Wallace, co-developer of the theory of evolution, was born #OTD 200 years ago (8 Jan. 1823 - 7 Nov. 1913). Here is his original sketch (1855) and published drawing (1869) of a frog previously unknown to science and now named in his honor, Wallace's Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus).
2. Original field study by Wallace from Borneo, 1855 [Alfed Russel Wallace Memorial Fund CC BY-NC-SA 4.0]
Published illustration in Wallace's book _The Malay archipelago : the land of the Orang-Utan, and the bird of paradise : a narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature_, 1869, p. 60. Engraving by John Gerrard Keulemans after an original drawing by Wallace. [BHL/CC-0]
Excerpt from Wallace's book The Malay Archipelago p. 59: “One of the most curious and interesting reptiles which I met with in Borneo was a large tree-frog, which was brought me by one of the Chinese workmen. He assured me that he had seen it come down, in a slanting direction, from a high tree, as if it flew."
And that's why it's better to say he was the first to scientifically describe a flying frog and not say he "discovered" it...and surely the Chinese worker who brought it to him wasn't the first to see one in action either, local Indigenous people likely knew about them for ages.
