Jan Versluys (1 September 1873 in

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

– 22 January 1939 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

) was a Dutch

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 ...

. He studied biology at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

, and afterwards participated on a scientific voyage to the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

aboard the vessel ''Chazalie''. In 1898 he obtained his doctorate from the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...

, then in 1899/1900 served as an assistant to

Max Carl Wilhelm Weber Max Carl Wilhelm Weber van Bosse or Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (5 December 1852 – 7 February 1937) was a German- Dutch zoologist and biogeographer. Weber studied at the University of Bonn, then at the Humboldt University in Berlin with the z ...

on the

Siboga Expedition The Siboga expedition was a Dutch zoological and hydrographic expedition to Indonesia from March 1899 to February 1900. The leader of the expedition was Max Carl Wilhelm Weber. Other members of the crew were his wife Anna Weber-Van Bosse, Anna ...

to the

Netherlands East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

. As a result of the mission, he published a monograph on Gorgonians, titled "''Die Gorgoniden der Siboga-Expedition''". Later on in his career, he worked as a professor of zoology at the universities of

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

(from 1916) and

(from 1925). Versluys is known to have corresponded with, and had visited American paleontologist

Barnum Brown Barnum Brown (February 12, 1873 – February 5, 1963), commonly referred to as Mr. Bones, was an American paleontologist. He discovered the first documented remains of ''Tyrannosaurus'' during a career that made him one of the most famous fossil ...

in 1904.

Siboga expedition group portrait in laboratory

Taxa with the epithet of ''versluysi'' commemorate his name, an example being the

amphipod Amphipoda () is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods () range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 10,700 amphipod species cur ...

subspecies ''Niphargus longicaudatus versluysi''.

Selected works

* ''Die mittlere und äussere Ohrspähre der Lacertilia und Rhynchocephalia'' (dissertation), 1898 – The middle and outer ear-sphere of

Lacertilia Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...

and

Rhynchocephalia Rhynchocephalia (; ) is an order of lizard-like reptiles that includes only one living species, the tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') of New Zealand. Despite its current lack of diversity, during the Mesozoic rhynchocephalians were a speciose g ...

. * ''Die Gorgoniden der Siboga-Expedition'' — English publication by Charles Cleveland Nutting a
"''The Gorgonacea of the Siboga expedition''"
(1902–11). * ''Entwicklung der Columella auris bei den Lacertiliern'', 1904 – Development of the columella auris in Lacertilia. * ''Ueber Kaumuskeln bei Lacertilia'', 1904 – On the

masseter In anatomy, the masseter is one of the muscles of mastication. Found only in mammals, it is particularly powerful in herbivores to facilitate chewing of plant matter. The most obvious muscle of mastication is the masseter muscle, since it is the ...

of Lacertilia. * ''Die Salamander und die ursprünglichsten vierbeinigen Landwirbeltiere'', 1909 – The

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

and the most primitive four-legged land vertebrates. * ''Der Schädel des Skelettes von Trachodon annectens im Senckenberg-Museum'', 1921 – The skull of the skeleton of '' Trachodon annectens'' at the

Senckenberg Museum The Naturmuseum Senckenberg () is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its kind in Germany. In 2010, almost 517,000 people visited the museum, which is owned by the Senckenberg Nature Research S ...

. * ''Die Verwandtschaft der Merostomata mit den Arachnida und den anderen Abteilungen der Arthropoda'' (with Reinhard Demoll), 1921 – The relationship of

Merostomata Merostomata is a class of chelicerate arthropods that contains the extinct Eurypterida (sea scorpions) and the extant Xiphosura (horseshoe crabs). The term was originally used by James Dwight Dana to refer to Xiphosura only, but was emended by ...

with

arachnid Arachnids are arthropods in the Class (biology), class Arachnida () of the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, opiliones, harvestmen, Solifugae, camel spiders, Amblypygi, wh ...

s and the other divisions of

Arthropoda Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated ( metameric) segments, and paired jointed appendages. ...

. * ''Die Abstammung und Differenzierung der Gigantostraken'', 1923 – The origin and differentiation of gigantostraca.Jan Versluys
de.Wikisource

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Versluys, Jan 1873 births 1939 deaths Scientists from Groningen (city) University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Vienna Academic staff of Ghent University Dutch zoologists Dutch herpetologists Dutch expatriates in Austria Dutch expatriates in Belgium