Name Arend August Parents Arend Friedrich Wiegmann | Education Leipzig University | |
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Died January 15, 1841, Braunschweig, Germany | ||
Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann (2 June 1802 – 15 January 1841) was a German zoologist and herpetologist born in Braunschweig.
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He studied medicine and philology at the University of Leipzig, and afterwards was an assistant to Martin Lichtenstein (1780–1857) in Berlin. In 1828 he became a professor at Cologne, and two years later was an extraordinary professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin.
Weigmann specialized in the study of herpetology and mammalogy. In 1835, he founded, together with other scholars, the zoological periodical Archiv für Naturgeschichte, also known as "Wiegmann's Archive". With Johann Friedrich Ruthe (1788–1859) he wrote an important textbook of zoology called Handbuch der Zoologie, and in 1834 Wiegmann published Herpetologia Mexicana, a monograph on the reptiles of Mexico.
In 1841 he died of tuberculosis at the age of 38 in Berlin.
Species described by Wiegmann
Of the many species of reptiles which he described, 55 species are still considered valid, among which are:
He also described several new species of amphibians.
Species named in honor of Wiegmann
Wiegmann is commemorated in the scientific names of three species of Reptiles: