Jean Roux (March 1876,

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

– 1 December 1939) was a Swiss

herpetologist Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...

. He studied at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

, completing his doctoral thesis in 1899. His early research involved studies of

protozoa Protozoa (: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a polyphyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic debris. Historically ...

, and following post-doctoral work in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, he became a

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

at the natural history museum in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. Here, he performed analysis of herpetological specimens collected by

Fritz Müller Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller (; 31 March 182221 May 1897), better known as Fritz Müller (), and also as Müller-Desterro, was a German biologist who emigrated to southern Brazil, where he lived in and near the city of Blumenau, Santa Cata ...

, his predecessor at Basel.SSARHerps
(biography) In 1907–08, with Hugo Merton, he performed scientific research in the Aru and Kei Islands, and in 1911–12, with Fritz Sarasin, he visited

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

and the Loyalty Islands. As a result of the latter expedition, he published with Sarasin a major work titled, ''Nova Caledonia. Forschungen in Neu-Caledonien und auf den Loyalty-Inseln. Recherches scientifiques en Nouvelle-Calédonie et aux iles Loyalty''. During his career, he was the author of 35 papers on herpetological subjects.

Eponymy

In 1913 he described "Roux's emo skink" ('' Emoia loyaltiensis'') and "Roux's giant gecko" ('' Rhacodactylus sarasinorum''). His name is also commemorated with a

skink Skinks are a type of lizard belonging to the family (biology), family Scincidae, a family in the Taxonomic rank, infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one o ...

species called '' Lipinia rouxi'' (Hediger, 1934) and frog '' Phrynobatrachus rouxi''.

References

External links

Nova Caledonia. Forschungen in Neu-Caledonien und auf den Loyalty-Inseln. Recherches scientifiques en Nouvelle-Calédonie et aux iles Loyalty. A. Zoologie (1913)
A. Zoologie, Volume I.
Nova Caledonia. Forschungen in Neu-Caledonien und auf den Loyalty-Inseln. Recherches scientifiques en Nouvelle-Calédonie et aux iles Loyalty. A. Zoologie (1915)
A. Zoologie, Volume II. {{DEFAULTSORT:Roux, Jean 1876 births 1939 deaths Swiss herpetologists 20th-century Swiss zoologists Scientists from Geneva University of Geneva alumni