Coenraad Jacob Temminck (; 31 March 1778 – 30 January 1858) was a Dutch aristocrat, zoologist and museum director.
Biography
Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born on 31 March 1778 in Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic. From his father, Jacob Temminck, who was treasurer of the Dutch East India Company with links to numerous travellers and collectors, he inherited a large collection of bird specimens. His father was a good friend of Francois Levaillant who also guided Coenraad.
Temminck's Manuel d'ornithologie, ou Tableau systématique des oiseaux qui se trouvent en Europe (1815) was the standard work on European birds for many years. He was also the author of Histoire naturelle générale des Pigeons et des Gallinacées (1813–1817), Nouveau Recueil de Planches coloriées d'Oiseaux (1820–1839), and contributed to the mammalian sections of Philipp Franz von Siebold's Fauna japonica (1844–1850).
Temminck was the first director of the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden from 1820 until now. In 1824, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 1831, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1836 he became member of the Royal Institute, predecessor of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Works
Temminck, in collaboration with Heinrich Kuhl, is the author of descriptions of parrots, including the rosella Platycercus icterotis. A tailless mutant of a junglefowl Gallus lafayettii was described in 1807 by Temminck, which in 1868 the English naturalist Charles Darwin incorrectly denied existed. Another junglefowl, described in 1813 by Temminck as Gallus giganteus was, he believed, one of six wild ancestral species of domestic fowl; Darwin, however, demonstrated that the latter has a single (monophyletic) origin.
Species named after Temminck
A large number of animals were named for Temminck in the 19th century. Among those still in use are:
Sharks: Broadfin shark Lamiopsis temminckii Fishes Ancistrus temminckii (an armoured suckermouth catfish) Dark chub Zacco temminckii (a carp) Nipponocypris temminckii (a cyprinid) Samoan silverside Hypoatherina temminckii The Longnose Pipefish Syngnathus temminckii Kaup, 1856 Oilfish Rovetus temminckii (synonym) Goldribbon soapfish Aulacocephalus temminckii Ditrema temminckii (a surfperch) Thread-fin fairy-wrasse Cirrhilabrus temminckii Kissing gourami Helostoma temminckii Reptiles: Macrochelys temminckii (alligator snapping turtle) Tytthoscincus temmincki (a skink) Birds: Temminck's cormorant Phalacrocorax capillatus Temminck's tragopan Tragopan temminckii Bekisar G. varius × G. gallus "Gallus temminckii" Temminck's courser Cursorius temminckii Temminck's stint Calidris temminckii Malaysian eared nightjar Eurostopodus temminckii Purple-winged roller Coracias temminckii Temminck's hornbill Penelopides exarhatus Ochre-collared piculet Picumnus temminckii Sulawesi pygmy woodpecker Dendrocopos temminckii Temminck's fruit-dove Ptilinopus porphyreus Cerulean cuckooshrike Coracina temminckii Australian logrunner Orthonyx temminckii Temminck's sunbird Aethopyga temminckii Temminck's lark Eremophila bilopha Temminck's babbler Pellorneum pyrrhogenys Temminck's seedeater Sporophila falcirostris Blue whistling thrush subspecies Myophonus caeruleus temminckii Javan sunbird subspecies Aethopyga mystacalis temminckii Black sparrowhawk subspecies Accipiter melanoleucus temminckii Mammals: Temminck's mole Mogera wogura Temminck's flying fox Pteropus temminckii Temminck's tailless fruit bat Megaerops ecaudatus Dwarf dog-faced bat Molossops temminckii Temminck's trident bat Aselliscus tricuspidatus Temminck's mysterious bat Nycticeius aenobarbus Temminck's pangolin Smutsia temminckii Temminck's golden cat Catopuma temminckii Southern right whale Hunterus temminckii (a synonym) Temminck's mouse Mus musculoides Temminck's striped mouse Hybomys trivirgatus Temminck's giant squirrel Epixerus ebii Temminck's flying squirrel Petinomys setosus Temminck's red colobus Pilocolobus badius temminckii (subspecies)