Alphonse Milne-Edwards (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, 13 October 1835 – Paris, 21 April 1900) was a French mammalogist,

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

, and

carcinologist A carcinologist is a scientist who studies crustaceans or is otherwise involved in carcinology Carcinology is a branch of zoology that consists of the study of crustaceans, a group of arthropods that includes lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, ...

. He was English in origin, the son of

Henri Milne-Edwards Henri Milne-Edwards (23 October 1800 – 29 July 1885) was an eminent French zoologist. Biography Henri Milne-Edwards was the 27th child of William Edwards, an English planter and colonel of the militia in Jamaica and Elisabeth Vaux, a French ...

and grandson of Bryan Edwards, a Jamaican planter who settled at

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

(then in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

). Milne-Edwards obtained a medical degree in 1859 and became assistant to his father at the ' in 1876. He became the director of the in 1891, devoting himself especially to

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

and deep-sea exploration. In 1881, he undertook a survey of the Gulf of Gascony with Léopold de Folin and worked aboard the ''Travailleur'' and the ''

Talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

,'' researching the seas off the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...

, the

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

Islands, and the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

. For this, he received a gold medal of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. His major ornithological works include ' published in two parts in 1867 and 1872, ' 1866–1874 and ' 1868–1874. His study of fossils led to the discovery of tropical birds such as

trogon The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family Trogonidae contains 46 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Early E ...

s and

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...

s from prehistoric France. He worked with

Alfred Grandidier Alfred Grandidier (20 December 1836 – 13 September 1921) was a French naturalist and explorer. From a very wealthy family, at the age of 20, he and his brother, Ernest Grandidier (1833–1912), undertook a voyage around the world. At first ...

on '. Milne-Edwards also described at least one plant taxon; a species of

gutta-percha Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus '' Palaquium'' in the family Sapotaceae. The name also refers to the rigid, naturally biologically inert, resilient, electrically nonconductive, thermoplastic latex derived from the tree, particularly fr ...

collected from the island of

Grande Comore Grande Comore () is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, which is ...

, Comoros, by ornithologist

Léon Humblot Léon Joseph Henry Humblot (3 June 1852 in Nancy – 20 March 1914) was a French naturalist and botanical collector.Isonandra ''Isonandra'' is a genus of plants in the family Sapotaceae found in tropical Asia, described as a genus in 1840. ''Isonandra'' is native to India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in ...

gutta''.''Bulletin du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle'' 5: 187–189. 1899. (''I. gutta'' is now considered to be a taxonomic synonym of '' Palaquium gutta'' ( Hook.) Burck, and a homonym of its

basionym In the scientific name of organisms, basionym or basyonym means the original name on which a new name is based; the author citation of the new name should include the authors of the basionym in parentheses. The term "basionym" is used in both bota ...

''Isonandra gutta'' Hook..) A subspecies of Central American lizard, '' Holcosus festivus edwardsii'' , is named in honor of Milne-Edwards. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Edwards", p. 80).

Selected publications

* 1850 : ''Rapport sur la production et l'emploi du sel en Angleterre'', Paris. * 1860
« Histoire des crustacés podophthalmaires fossiles »
''Annales des Sciences Naturelles'', Séries 4, Zoologie, 14 : 129–294, pls. 1-10. * 1862-1865 : « Monographie des crustacés de la famille cancériens ». Annales des sciences naturelles, zoologie, Séries 4, 18 (1862) : 31-85 ; 20 (1863) : 273-324 ; Séries 5, 1 (1864) : 31-88 ; 3 (1865) : 297–351. * 1862 : « Sur l'existence de Crustacés de la famille des Raniniens pendant la période crétacée ». ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences de Paris'', 55 : 492–494. * 1864 : ''Recherches anatomiques, zoologiques et paléontologiques sur la famille des Chevrotains'', Martinet, Paris. * 1866-1873 : ''Recherches sur la faune ornithologique éteinte des iles Mascareignes et de Madagascar'', Masson, Paris. * 1867-1871
''Recherches anatomiques et paléontologiques pour servir à l'histoire des oiseaux fossiles de la France''
Masson, Paris. * 1868-1874 : ''Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères comprenant des considérations sur la classification de ces animaux'' par M. H. Milne Edwards, ''des observations sur l'hippopotame de Liberia et des études sur la faune de la Chine et du Tibet oriental'', par M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, Masson, Paris. * 1873 : « Descriptions des quelques crustacés nouveaux ou peu connus provenant du Musée de M. C. Godeffroy ». ''Journal des Museum Godeffroy'', 1 : 77–88, 12–13. * 1879 : ''Notice sur les travaux scientifiques'', Martinet, Paris. * 1879 : with Giovanni Battista Brocchi (1772-1826) « Note sur quelques Crustacés fossiles appartenant au groupe des macrophthalmiens ». ''Bulletin de la Société philomathique de Paris'', 3 : 113–117. * 1879 : with

(1836-1921), ''Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar''. Paris. * 1880 : « Reports on the results of dredging, under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean Sea, 1877, ‘78, ‘79, by the United States Coast Survey Steamer "Blake"... VIII. Études préliminaires sur les Crustacés ». ''Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College'', 8 (1) : 1-68. * 1881 : « Note sur quelques Crustacés fossiles des environs de Biarritz », ''Annales des sciences géologique'' (Paris), 11, article 2, pls. 21–22. * 1882 : ''Éléments de l'Histoire naturelle des Animaux'', Masson, Paris. * 1888-1906
''Expéditions scientifiques du Travailleur et du Talisman pendant les années 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883''
Masson, Paris. * 1891 : ''Crustacés'', Gauthier-Villars, Paris. * 1893 : ''Notice sur quelques espèces d'oiseaux actuellement éteintes qui se trouvent représentées dans les collections du Muséum d'Histoire naturelle'', Paris. * 1897 : ''Histoire naturelle des animaux'' Masson, Paris.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milne-Edwards, Alphonse 1835 births 1900 deaths 19th-century French zoologists French ornithologists French carcinologists Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences French people of English descent National Museum of Natural History (France) people Scientists from Paris

Selected publications

See also

References