Pieter Boddaert (1730 – 6 May 1795) was a Dutch physician and naturalist.

Early life, family and education

Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name (1694–1760). The younger Pieter obtained his M.D. at the University of Utrecht in 1764.

Career

He became a lecturer on natural history at his alma mater, University of Utrecht. Fourteen letters survive of his correspondence with Carl Linnaeus between 1768 and 1775. He was a friend of Albert Schlosser, whose cabinet of "curiosities" of natural history he described. In 1783 he published 50 copies of an identification key of

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's ''Planches enluminées'', the colored plates of illustrations for the

comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent F ...

's monumental ''

Histoire Naturelle The ''Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi'' (; en, Natural History, General and Particular, with a Description of the King's Cabinet, italic=yes) is an encyclopaedic collection of 36 large (qu ...

'' (published 1749–1789), assigning binomial scientific names to the plates. As many of these were the first Linnaean scientific names to be proposed, they remain in use. In 2017 the world list of birds maintained by

Frank Gill Frank Gill may refer to: * Frank Gill (Australian footballer) (1908–1970), Australian rules footballer with Carlton * Frank Gill (footballer, born 1948), footballer for Tranmere Rovers * Frank Gill (politician) (1917–1982), New Zealand politici ...

and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union included 190

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

for which Boddaert is cited as the

authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''The Ne ...

. Of these 112 are treated as

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

and 78 as subspecies. One species, the hoopoe starling, is now extinct. In 1784 he published ''Elenchus Animalium'', a "directory of animals" that included the first binomial names for a number of mammals, including the Quagga and the Tarpan.

Honors and awards

Boddaert is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of South American snake, ''

Mastigodryas boddaerti ''Mastigodryas boddaerti'', commonly known as Boddaert's tropical racer, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to tropical South America including Trinidad and Tobago. Distribution ''M. boddaerti'' occurs in Bo ...

''.

References

1730 births 1795 deaths 18th-century Dutch naturalists Dutch ornithologists People from Middelburg, Zeeland Utrecht University alumni Utrecht University faculty {{netherlands-scientist-stub