Neville Coleman OAM (1938 - 4 May 2012) was an Australian

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

, underwater nature

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

, writer, publisher and educator. Coleman started

scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...

in 1963, exploring

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a ria, natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove River, Lane ...

. Later he joined a scientific study group and, in 1969, commenced a project aiming to document the entire

marine life Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, aquatic plant, plants, algae, marine fungi, fungi, marine protists, protists, single-celled marine microorganisms, microorganisms ...

of Australia, using underwater photography. His first book, ''Australian marine fishes in colour'', was published in 1974 and he subsequently authored more than 50 books. His books included various texts for scuba divers, shell collectors, amateur naturalists and children, and typically took the forms of field guides, encyclopedias and dive guides. Departures included a collaboration with a poet and CD-ROM companions to printed publications, which included video clips of marine species. His photographs often appeared in publications by other authors on marine subjects. In 2007 Coleman was inducted to the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame and, in 2011, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for "service to conservation and the environment through the photographic documentation of Australian marine species". Coleman died of natural causes at 4:55am on 4 May 2012, in his sleep.

Taxon named in his honor

Coleman discovered many marine creatures new to science. Several species of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

, nudibranchs and other

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

s have been named after him, including: *The mantis shrimp '' Lysiosquilla colemani'' *The nudibranch '' Chromodoris colemani'' *The pygmy

seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine Osteichthyes, bony fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meanin ...

'' Hippocampus colemani'' *Coleman's melibe or ghost melibe '' Melibe colemani'' *The Sand perch '' Parapercis colemani''

Legacy

Neville Coleman Memorial Dives are held annually, with special events including a

sea slug Sea slug is a common name for some Marine biology, marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial Slug, slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are Sea snail, sea snails (marine gastropod moll ...

photo competition and public art exhibition held in South Australia.

Bibliography

References

External links

Neville Coleman's website - no longer existsBooks by Neville Coleman National Library of AustraliaCSIRO Taxon Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Neville 1938 births 2012 deaths Australian naturalists Australian non-fiction writers Australian photographers Australian underwater divers Underwater photographers Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia