Meetings
of the Biodiversity & Ecology Journal Club
Department
of Biological Sciences, The National University of Singapore
"History of Herpetological Explorations of Borneo"
by Dr Indraneil Das
Friday 11th January 2002: 10.30am - 11.30am
at
Seminar Room 3
Level 2, Blocks S2,
Science Drive 4, Science Faculty,
The National University of Singapore
Visitors
may park at Carpark 10.
See
map.
About the speaker
Dr Indraneil Das, a lecturer at the University of Malaysia, Sarawak, is one of the world authority on herpetiles in this region, having published many papers and books. More at this webpage.
Abstract
Biological explorations of the tropical island of Borneo, situated far from the commercial trade routes of Europe, were to commence much later than other adjacent islands, such as Java and Sumatra. Some of the earliest collectors include James Motley, Alfred Wallace, Odoardo Beccari, and William Temple Hornaday. The Sarawak Museum at Kuching has historically played an important role in the exploration of the island, and many leading naturalists of the day were based here - Eric Mjöberg, Robert Shelford and Tom Harrisson. Dutch explorations of their former colony of what is at present Kalimantan, commenced with the establishment of the Natural History Commission of Batavia, and significant collections from this southern portion of Borneo were reported by Pieter Bleeker, Theodorus Willem van Lidth de Jeude, Jan Kornelis de Jong and Leo Brongersma. The continuing new discoveries of amphibians and reptiles in recent years indicate that much remains to be learnt of the herpetofauna of Borneo.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
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