Gabriel Bibron (20 October 1805 – 27 March 1848) was a
French zoologist and
herpetologist. He was born in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. The son of an employee of the
Museum national d'histoire naturelle, he had a good foundation in
natural history and was hired to collect
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 ...
s in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
and
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
. Under the direction of
Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1778–1846), he took part in the
Morea expedition to
Peloponnese.
He classified numerous
reptile
Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
with
André Marie Constant Duméril (1774–1860), whom he had met in 1832. Duméril was interested mainly in the relations between
genera, and he left to Bibron the task of describing the species. Working together they produced the ''Erpétologie Générale'', a comprehensive account of the
reptiles, published in ten volumes from 1834 to 1854. Also, Bibron assisted Duméril with teaching duties at the museum and was an instructor at a primary school in Paris.
Bibron contracted
tuberculosis and retired in 1845 to
Saint-Alban-les-Eaux, where he died aged 42.
Taxa named in honor of Bibron
Bibron is commemorated in the scientific names of ten species of reptiles.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Bibron", p. 25).]
*''
Afrotyphlops bibronii'', a
blind snake
*''
Atractaspis bibroni'', a
venomous snake
*''
Calliophis bibroni'', a venomous snake
*''
Candoia bibroni'', a
boa
*''
Chondrodactylus bibronii'', a
gecko
*''
Diplolaemus bibronii'', a lizard
*''
Enyalius bibronii'', a lizard
*''
Eutropis bibronii'', a
skink
*''
Liolaemus bibronii'', a lizard
*''
Pelochelys bibroni'', a turtle
An eleventh species, which was more commonly known as ''Agama impalearis'', had been named ''
Agama bibronii'' by André Marie Constant Duméril in 1851, however a decision by the ICZN in 1971 confirmed that the correct name was ''A. bibroni''.
References
External links
SSARHerps(biography).
1805 births
1848 deaths
French zoologists
French herpetologists
National Museum of Natural History (France) people
Scientists from Paris
Tuberculosis deaths in France
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
{{France-zoologist-stub