Rudolf Sturany (13 April 1867 – 28 February 1935) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

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 ...

who specialized in the field of malacology, the study of

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

s. He studied zoology at the University of Leipzig under Rudolf Leuckart and at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, where his instructors included Carl Claus, Friedrich Moritz Brauer and Karl Grobben. In 1891 he obtained his PhD at Vienna.Hofrat Dr. Rudolf Sturany, obituary
Landesmuseum In September 1889 he began work as a volunteer at the Natural History Museum of Vienna, later serving as 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 ...

, being entrusted with the collections of mollusks, bryozoans, brachiopods and tunicates. During his career, he took frequent trips for scientific research in Bosnia, Herzegovina,

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

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Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

and

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. In 1924 he retired from museum work due to a deteriorating eye condition. Sturany was the taxonomic authority for numerous mollusk species, a few examples being: '' Spelaeoconcha paganettii'', '' Pseudobithynia pentheri'' and '' Mitra gonatophora''. The

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shel ...

genus '' Sturanyella'', in all likelihood, is named after him.

Selected writings

* ''Lamellibranchiaten des Rothen Meeres'', 1899 –

Lamellibranch Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

es of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

. * ''W.A. Obrutschew's Mollusken-Ausbiete aus Hochasien'', 1900 – Wladimir Afanasjewitsch Obrutschew's collection from Central Asia. * ''Gastropoden des Rothen Meeres'', 1904 –

Gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

s of the Red Sea. * ''Über schalentragende Landmolusken aus Albanien und Nachbargebieten'', 1915 – On shell-bearing land mollusks of Albania and neighboring areas.WorldCat Search
publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturany, Rudolf 1867 births 1935 deaths Scientists from Vienna Austrian zoologists Austrian malacologists Zoologists from Austria-Hungary