Name Anthonie Oudemans | ||
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Died January 14, 1943, Arnhem, Netherlands | ||
Anthonie (Antoon) Cornelis Oudemans Jzn (November 12, 1858 – January 14, 1943) was a Dutch zoologist.
Born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, he was the son of the noted Dutch astronomer Jean Abraham Chrétien Oudemans and the grandson of the Dutch educator, poet and philologist Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans Sr., after whom he was named. He often used the patronymic "Jzn" (for Jeanzoon) in his publications.
He wrote his dissertation on ribbon worms, and in 1885 was appointed director of the Royal Zoological Gardens at The Hague. He is credited with the discovery of several insect and a primate species, the black crested mangabey.
1892 saw the publication of Oudeman's The Great Sea Serpent, a study of the many sea serpent reports from the world's oceans. Oudemans concluded that such creatures might be a previously unknown large seal, which he dubbed Megophias megophias. Reception of the volume has been described as respectful but "cold". Bernard Heuvelmans later suggested that The Great Sea Serpent was the root of cryptozoology.
In 1917 he published Dodo-studiën: naar aanleiding van de vondst van een gevelsteen met dodo-beeld van 1561 te Vere, an article on extinct dodo research.
In 1895, Oudemans left The Hague to teach biology in the Frisian city of Sneek. He published several scientific articles in later years. He had married Helena Johanna van de Velde in 1887, but became a widower, and remarried to Aletta Amelia Louise Pilgrim in 1919.
In 1942 he donated the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie his important collection of mites (Acari). This collection numbers 5981 slides (1316 species). After his death, the accompanying drawings were bequeathed to the museum as well.
Oudemans died in Arnhem in 1943.