IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Hershkovitz, P. | |
| A history of the recent mammalogy of the Neotropical region from 1492 to 1850 | |
| 1987 Fieldiana Zoology (39): 11-98 | |
The history of Neotropical mammalogy began with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The earliest notices were purely anecdotal, recorded by Spanish chroniclers from the mouths of the sailors on their return from voyages of discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries. Colonization of the Guianan and Brazilian coasts during the 17th century provided opportunities for inventories and descriptions of the mammals by trained European naturalists and physicians. The systematization and scientific naming of the known Brazilian species by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758 were based primarily on the mammals described in the 17th century monograph of Brazilian biota by Georg Marcgraf. The actual collection and preservation of mammals for study, however, began in the 18th century with the Brazilian-bom Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira. The 18th and first half of the 19th century was an explosive and romantic period of independently or governmentally sponsored scientific expeditions for field observations, collections, preservations, and taxonomic studies of the specimens shipped to European museums and private collectors. Outstanding among the naturalists who made significant contributions to mammalogy during this period are Alexander von Humboldt, Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix (Brazil), Maximilian Prinz Wied-Neuwied (Brazil), Johann Natterer (Brazil), Sir Robert Herman Schomburgk and Richard Schomburgk (Guyana), Claudio Gay (Chile), Johann Jakob von Tschudi (Peru), Felix de Azara (Paraguay), Rudolph Rengger (Paraguay), Alcide Charles Victor d'Orbigny (Argentina, Bolivia), and Charles Robert Darwin (Patagonia and Galapagos). Their itineraries, collections of mammals, taxonomies, and some field notes are included in the accounts of these and other noteworthy naturalists. By the middle of the 19th century, the mammalian fauna of South America became the best known of any continent with exception of the western European part of Eurasia. The problems of origins and distribution of Neotropical mammals intrigued scholars from among the earliest chroniclers down to pre-evolutionary Darwin. Their concepts on these subjects are briefly discussed. |
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