Koen Fraussen (born 1965) is a Belgian amateur

malacologist Malacology, from Ancient Greek μαλακός (''malakós''), meaning "soft", and λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (molluscs or mollusks), the second-largest ...

, shell collector, and expert in the

Buccinoidea Buccinoidea is a taxonomic superfamily of very small to large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks. This superfamily is in the clade Neogastropoda according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). It had been p ...

Biography

Fraussen was born in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. His interest in the ocean started during family holidays on the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

. He began collecting shells at the age of 2. Fraussen is a part-time bus driver who also studies

whelk Whelks are any of several carnivorous sea snail species with a swirling, tapered shell. Many are eaten by humans, such as the common whelk of the North Atlantic. Most whelks belong to the family Buccinidae and are known as "true whelks." Othe ...

shells for the

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

. In exchange for his curatorial work, Fraussen is given a

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

of each specimen he identifies.

Philippe Bouchet Philippe Bouchet (born 1953) is a French biologist whose primary scientific fields of study are malacology (the study of molluscs) and taxonomy. He works at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. He is also a Commissioner of the In ...

considers Fraussen "the world expert" on the

Buccinidae The Buccinidae are a very large and diverse taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks or true whelks.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2010). Buccinidae. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Ac ...

. In 2010, Fraussen and biologist Stefaan Wera released the book ''Schelpen aan de Belgische kust''. With the Muséum National, Fraussen published 20 new species of the Photinae (subfamily of the

Nassariidae The Nassariidae, Nassa mud snails (US), or dog whelks (UK) are a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized snails, mostly marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda. These snails have rounded shells with a high spire, an oval ap ...

) as of 2017.

Legacy

Fraussen is honored by several

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

s, including ''

Buccinum frausseni ''Buccinum frausseni'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Buccinidae The Buccinidae are a very large and diverse taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks or true whelks.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, ...

'', '' Conus frausseni'', ''

Eccliseogyra frausseni ''Eccliseogyra'' is a genus of predatory sea snails, marine prosobranch gastropod mollusks in the family Epitoniidae, commonly known as wentletraps.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Eccliseogyra Dall, 1892. Accessed through: World Register ...

'', '' Engina frausseni'', '' Fusinus frausseni'', '' Inquisitor frausseni'', '' Metaal frausseni'', '' Pristiterebra frausseni'', and ''

Tomlinia frausseni ''Tomlinia'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the subfamily Tomliniinae of the family Nassariidae.MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Tomlinia Peile, 1937. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https:// ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraussen, Koen Belgian malacologists Living people 1965 births