Eduard Rüppell

Eduard Rüppell
Eduard Rüppell
	Eduard Rüppell
Born	20 November 1794; Frankfurt-on-Main
Died	10 December 1884 (aged 90)
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Pavia
	Scientific career
Fields	naturalist

Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell (20 November 1794 – 10 December 1884) was a German naturalist and explorer. Rüppell is occasionally transliterated to "Rueppell" for the English alphabet.

Rüppell was born at Frankfurt-on-Main, the son of a very prosperous banker. He was originally destined to be a merchant, but after a visit to Sinai in 1817 he developed an interest in natural history. He attended lectures at the University of Pavia and University of Genoa in botany and zoology.

Rüppell set off on his first expedition in 1821, accompanied by surgeon Michael Hey as his assistant. They travelled through the Sinai desert, and in 1822 were the first European explorers to reach the Gulf of Aqaba. They then proceeded to Alexandria via Mount Sinai. In 1823 they travelled up the Nile to Nubia, collecting specimens in the area south of Ambukol, returning to Cairo in July 1825. A planned journey through Ethiopia only reached as far as Massawa, where the party suffered ill health.

Rüppell returned to Europe in 1827. During his absence Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar had used specimens sent back by Rüppell to produce the Atlas zu der Reise im nordlichen Afrika (Atlas of Travels in northern Africa) (1826).

In 1830 Rüppell returned to Africa, and became the first naturalist to traverse Ethiopia.

Rüppell also published an account of his travels, entitled, Travels in Abyssinia.

Eponymy

Species bearing his name include:

Rüppell's agama, Agama rueppelli [1]
Rüppell's black chat, Myrmecocichla melaena
Rüppell's broad-nosed bat, Scoteanax rueppellii
Rüppell's bustard, Eupodotis rueppellii
Rüppell's desert chameleon, Trioceros affinis [1]
Rüppell's fox, Vulpes rueppellii
Rüppell's horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus fumigatus
Rüppell's parrot, Poicephalus rueppellii
Rüppell's pipistrelle, Pipistrellus rueppellii
Rüppell's robin-chat, Cossypha semirufa
Rüppell's snake-eyed skink, Ablepharus rueppellii
Rüppell's starling, Lamprotornis purpuroptera
Rüppell's vulture, Gyps rueppellii
Rüppell's warbler, Sylvia rueppelli
Rüppell's weaver, Ploceus galbula

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References

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. (" Rüppell / Rueppell ", p. 229).

Sources

Barbara and Richard Mearns. Biographies for Birdwatchers. ISBN 0-12-487422-3
Obituary. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series, Vol. 8, No. 10 (Oct., 1886), pp. 654.

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[EDR-1] 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. (" Rüppell / Rueppell ", p. 229).