Editing Blasius Merrem

{{Short description|German naturalist and mathematician}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Blasius Merrem
| image       = Merrem Blasius 1761-1824.png
| caption     = 
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1761|02|04|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Bremen]], Germany
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1824|02|23|1761|02|04|df=yes}}
| occupation  = Naturalist, zoologist
}}

'''Blasius Merrem''' (4 February 1761 – 23 February 1824) was a German [[natural history|naturalist]], [[zoologist]], [[Ornithology|ornithologist]], [[mathematician]], and [[Herpetology|herpetologist]]. In 1804, he became the professor of political economy and botany at the [[University of Marburg]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Quattrochi|first=Umberto|title=CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names|year=1999|publisher=Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press|pages=1663}}</ref>

==Early life==
Merrem was born at [[Bremen (city)|Bremen]], and studied at the [[University of Göttingen]]  under [[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach]]. He developed an interest in [[zoology]], particularly [[ornithology]].

==Ornithology==
He is remembered chiefly as the first ornithologist to propose a division of birds into Ratitae ([[ratite]]s or running birds, with a flat [[sternum]]) and [[Carinatae]] (carinates or flying birds, with a keeled sternum), which formed part of his classification of birds in ''Tentamen Systematis Naturalis Avium'', published in Berlin in 1816 (in ''Abhandlugen Akad. Wiss. Berlin 1812–1813: Phys. Kl.'').

==Herpetology==
Similarly, in his 1820 opus, ''Versuch eines Systems der Amphibien'', he was the first scientist to accurately separate [[amphibian]]s from [[reptiles]], to separate [[crocodilian]]s from [[lizards]], and to combine lizards and [[snake]]s in a single [[Order (biology)|order]].<ref name="EDR">Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Merrem", p. 176).</ref>

Merrem is honored in the [[Binomial nomenclature|scientific names]] of two South American snakes: the [[subspecies]] ''[[Military ground snake|Erythrolamprus miliaris merremi]]'', and the species ''[[Xenodon merremii]]''.<ref name="EDR"/>

==Works==
*''De animalibus Scythicis apud Plinium'' (1781). (in Latin).
*''Vermischte Abhandlungen aus der Thiergeschichte'' (1781). (in German).
*''Beyträge zur besondern Geschichte der Vögel gesammelt'' (1784-1786). (in German).
*''Avium rariorum et minus cognitarum icones et descriptiones'' (1786). (in Latin).
*''Beitraege zur Naturgeschichte'' (1790-1821). (in German).
*''Reise nach Paris im August und September, 1798'' (1800). (in German).
*''Index plantarum horti academici Marburgensis'' (1807). (in Latin).
*''Handbuch der Pflanzenkunde nach dem Linneischen System'' (1809). (in German).
*''Versuch eines Systems der Amphibien: Tentamen Systematis Amphibiorum'' (1820). (in German and Latin).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrem, Blasius}}
[[Category:1761 births]]
[[Category:1824 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century German zoologists]]
[[Category:German ornithologists]]
[[Category:German herpetologists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Bremen (state)]]
[[Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Marburg]]
[[Category:19th-century German zoologists]]
[[Category:18th-century German naturalists]]
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{{Ornithologist-stub}}