Det Kvartærzoologiske Centralregister - arkæologisk del
Forsskål types in the Zoological Museum
Forsskål’s famous fish herbarium were made during the "The Arabian Journey" (1761-67), an expedition arranged by the Danish king, Frederik the 5th. Peter Forsskål was the naturalist of the of the expedition and one of his many objects was to make collection of the natural history of South West Arabia. For more information on the expedition and on the collections in general see Hansen (1962) and Spärck (1963).
Except for a few alcohol preserved specimens, which never reached Denmark, all fish in the collection were preserved as dried specimens, with only the skin and parts of the skeleton from either the right or left side kept, pressed like a plant in a herbarium.
Forsskål’s descriptions was published in "Descriptiones Animalium, Avium, Amphibiorum, Piscium, Insectorum, Vermium quae in Itinere Orientali observavit Petrus Fors[s]kål" printed in Copenhagen in 1775, twelve years after the death of Forsskål. The book was edited by Carsten Niebuhr, the only survivor of the expedition, and was based on Forsskål’s field notes.
You will find information, photos and radiographs of the types of 60 nominal species still present in the ZMUC collection, including one uncertain holotype and the holotype of Salarias quadripennis Cuvier, 1817, which was described from a Forsskål specimen. A total of 42 holotypes, 9 syntypes, 14 lectotypes and 14 paralectotypes are included. Today, 52 of Forsskål’s nominal species are considered valid, but 48 of these have been reassigned to other genera. Eight species are regarded as junior synonyms of other species.
The present text was arranged by Peter Rask Møller, primarily based on the work of Klausewitz and Nielsen (1965), but with new photos and X-rays of three and ten species, respectively. The species are arranged according to their current systematic position and generally follow Goren and Dor, 1994.
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| Picture of P. Forsskål | Picture of C. Niebuhr |