Carl Jakob Sundevall (22 October 1801 in Högestad – 2 February 1875) was a Swedish

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

. Sundevall studied at

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

, where he received a Ph.D. in 1823. After traveling to East Asia, he studied medicine, graduating as a Doctor of Medicine in 1830. He was employed at the Swedish Museum of Natural History,

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, from 1833, and was professor and keeper of the

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

section from 1839 to 1871. He wrote ''Svenska Foglarna'' (1856–87), which described 238 species of birds observed in Sweden. He classified a number of birds collected in southern Africa by Johan August Wahlberg. In 1835, he developed a

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

for the birds based on the muscles of the hip and leg that contributed to later work by

Thomas Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist who specialized in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stor ...

. He then went on to examine the arrangement of the deep

plantar Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position provi ...

tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue, dense fibrous connective tissue that connects skeletal muscle, muscle to bone. It sends the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system, while withstanding tensi ...

s in the bird's foot. This latter information is still used by avian taxonomists. Sundevall was also an

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

and

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, ticks, and mites. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly ...

, for which (for the latter field) in 1833 he published an early catalog ''Conspectus Arachnidum''. Much later in 1862, he wrote a monograph proposing a universal phonetic alphabet, ''Om phonetiska bokstäver''.

Legacy

Sundevall is commemorated in the scientific names of four species of reptiles: '' Elapsoidea sundevallii, Leptotyphlops sundewalli, Mochlus sundevallii'', and '' Prosymna sundevalli''. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Sundevall", p. 258). Also the rodent, Sundevall's jird (''Meriones crassus''), is named after him.

References

Sources

*Anonymous (1875). undevall, C. J.''Journal of Ornithology'' 23: 214–215. *Anonymous (1875). undevall, C. J. ''Journal of Zoology'' 4: 61. * Areschoug, J. E. (1879). ''Minnesteckning öfver C. J. Sundevall''. Stockholm. * Bonnet, P. (1945). ''Bibliographia Araneorum''. Toulouse.

External links

Ibis: Obituary of Carl Jakob Sundevall
Swedish taxonomists 1801 births 1875 deaths Swedish entomologists Swedish mammalogists Swedish ornithologists Swedish arachnologists Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 19th-century Swedish zoologists Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala People from Ystad Municipality {{zoologist-stub