Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans

Female mite Laelaps hilaris Koch by Oudemans. Oudemans Collection Naturalis.
Female water mite Piona nodata O.F. Müller. Oudemans Collection.

Anthonie (Antoon) Cornelis Oudemans Jzn (November 12, 1858 – January 14, 1943) was a Dutch zoologist.[1]

Born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, he was the son of the noted Dutch astronomer Jean Abraham Chrétien Oudemans and the grandson of the Dutch educator, poet and philologist Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans Sr., after whom he was named. He often used the informal patronymic "Jzn" (for Jeanzoon) in his publications.

He wrote his dissertation on ribbon worms,[2] and in 1885 was appointed director of the Royal Zoological Gardens at The Hague.[3] He is credited with the discovery of several insects and of a species of primate, the black crested mangabey.

1892 saw the publication of Oudeman's The Great Sea Serpent, a study of the many sea serpent reports from the world's oceans. Oudemans concluded that such creatures might be a previously unknown large seal, which he dubbed Megophias megophias. Reception of the volume has been described as respectful but "cold". Bernard Heuvelmans later suggested that The Great Sea Serpent was the root of cryptozoology.

In 1917 he published Dodo-studiën: naar aanleiding van de vondst van een gevelsteen met dodo-beeld van 1561 te Vere,[4] an article about the study of the extinct dodo.

In 1895, Oudemans left The Hague to teach biology in the city of Sneek. He published several scientific articles in later years. He had married Helena Johanna van de Velde in 1887, but became a widower, and remarried to Aletta Amelia Louise Pilgrim in 1919.

In 1942 he donated the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie his important collection of mites (Acari). This collection numbers 5981 slides (1316 species).[5] After his death, the accompanying drawings were bequeated to the museum as well.

Oudemans died in Arnhem in 1943.

Notes

  1. This minibiography is based on: Eindhoven G. L. van (1943). "In memoriam Dr. A. C. Oudemans". Tijdschrift voor entomologie 86: 1–56.
  2. Bijdrage tot de kennis van het bloedvaatstelsel en de nephridia der Nemertinen. Proefschrift ter verkrijging van den graad van Doctor in de Planten Dierkunde aan de Rijks-Universiteit te Utrecht. Utrecht, P. W. van de Weijer, p. 1–114, Pl. I–III, f. 1–75.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2004-12-14. Retrieved 2004-12-14.
  4. "Dodo-studiën. Naar aanleiding van de vondst van een gevelsteen met dodo-beeld van 1561 te Vere : Oudemans, Anthonie Cornelis, 1858-1943 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive". Archive.org. Retrieved 2016-09-20.
  5. Buitendijk, A.M. (1945). Voorloopige Catalogus van de Acari in de Collectie-Oudemans. Zoologische Mededelingen, Vol. 24. pp. 281–391.

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