4
interest. On the other hand, direct competition between various eminent naturalists
served as a trigger for the first discoveries.
The Brazilian naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, who was unfortunately
forgotten, had a vital importance due to his work. In many ways, he was the pioneer
to unravel the Amazon’s tributaries in a famous expedition, and also, the specimens
collected by him were sent to Coimbra and Lisbon in the eighteenth century. In
1790, he collected the type specimen of the Amazon River dolphin, Inia geoffrensis
(de Blainville, 1817). Originally sent to the Museu da Ajuda, in Lisbon, the specimen was taken to Paris by Napoleon looters, during the Peninsular Wars. Geoffroy
Saint-Hilaire himself was responsible for the “transfer” and ended up being honored
as the specific epithet, while Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira remained anonymous.
Therefore, this is the time to pay tribute for Ferreira’s pioneering in the Latin
American aquatic mastozoology.
The itinerant French naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857) and his colleagues
from the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris and the Académie Royale de Sciences
de Belgique in Brussels were the first to devote more time to the aquatic mammals.
They also collected material and illustrated color plates that served for the description of the Franciscana, Pontoporia blainvillei (Gervais & d’Orgigny, 1844). He
also described the genus Inia d’Orbigny, 1834.
Paul Gervais and P.J. van Bénéden made use of that precious material nominating valid species as the Amazonian tucuxi, Sotalia fluviatilis (Gervais, 1852) and the
estuarine dolphin or Guiana dolphin, S. guianensis (P.J. van Bénéden, 1864).
Descriptions of S. pallida (van Bénéden & Gervais, 1880) and S. brasiliensis (van
Bénéden, 1875) are currently junior synonyms of the related species mentioned
above.
The Baron Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, a recognized entomologist, was in
Brazil, in December 1803 (Berger 1984). He reported the whaling in the state of
Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, citing the sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus
Linnaeus, 1756. His apparently glaring mistake was due to the hunting occur in
winter and spring, but never in the summer when he stayed there. Moreover, the
only target species during whaling in southern Brazil was the southern right whales,
Eubalaena australis (Desmoulins, 1822), which was a species not scientifically
described at that time yet. That mistake was fixed only with a full assessment of
significant amounts of bone material from the whaling stations that showed the
southern right whales was the only species hunt on the southern coast of Brazil
(Simões-Lopes and Ximenez 1993).
The greatest contribution of that period was that of another entomologist, the
German Herman Karl Conrad Burmeister. He described small and large cetaceans
like the strange Burmeister’s porpoise, Phocoena spinipinnis Burmeister, 1865, the
Antarctic minke whale, Balaenoptera bonaerensis Burmeister, 1867, and founded
the first cetology center in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, in Buenos
Aires. Such facts gave the front in this field of knowledge to Argentina and absorbed
other foreign and autochthonous scientists.
P.C. Simões-Lopes
interest. On the other hand, direct competition between various eminent naturalists
served as a trigger for the first discoveries.
The Brazilian naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, who was unfortunately
forgotten, had a vital importance due to his work. In many ways, he was the pioneer
to unravel the Amazon’s tributaries in a famous expedition, and also, the specimens
collected by him were sent to Coimbra and Lisbon in the eighteenth century. In
1790, he collected the type specimen of the Amazon River dolphin, Inia geoffrensis
(de Blainville, 1817). Originally sent to the Museu da Ajuda, in Lisbon, the specimen was taken to Paris by Napoleon looters, during the Peninsular Wars. Geoffroy
Saint-Hilaire himself was responsible for the “transfer” and ended up being honored
as the specific epithet, while Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira remained anonymous.
Therefore, this is the time to pay tribute for Ferreira’s pioneering in the Latin
American aquatic mastozoology.
The itinerant French naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857) and his colleagues
from the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris and the Académie Royale de Sciences
de Belgique in Brussels were the first to devote more time to the aquatic mammals.
They also collected material and illustrated color plates that served for the description of the Franciscana, Pontoporia blainvillei (Gervais & d’Orgigny, 1844). He
also described the genus Inia d’Orbigny, 1834.
Paul Gervais and P.J. van Bénéden made use of that precious material nominating valid species as the Amazonian tucuxi, Sotalia fluviatilis (Gervais, 1852) and the
estuarine dolphin or Guiana dolphin, S. guianensis (P.J. van Bénéden, 1864).
Descriptions of S. pallida (van Bénéden & Gervais, 1880) and S. brasiliensis (van
Bénéden, 1875) are currently junior synonyms of the related species mentioned
above.
The Baron Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, a recognized entomologist, was in
Brazil, in December 1803 (Berger 1984). He reported the whaling in the state of
Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, citing the sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus
Linnaeus, 1756. His apparently glaring mistake was due to the hunting occur in
winter and spring, but never in the summer when he stayed there. Moreover, the
only target species during whaling in southern Brazil was the southern right whales,
Eubalaena australis (Desmoulins, 1822), which was a species not scientifically
described at that time yet. That mistake was fixed only with a full assessment of
significant amounts of bone material from the whaling stations that showed the
southern right whales was the only species hunt on the southern coast of Brazil
(Simões-Lopes and Ximenez 1993).
The greatest contribution of that period was that of another entomologist, the
German Herman Karl Conrad Burmeister. He described small and large cetaceans
like the strange Burmeister’s porpoise, Phocoena spinipinnis Burmeister, 1865, the
Antarctic minke whale, Balaenoptera bonaerensis Burmeister, 1867, and founded
the first cetology center in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, in Buenos
Aires. Such facts gave the front in this field of knowledge to Argentina and absorbed
other foreign and autochthonous scientists.
P.C. Simões-Lopes