Johann Georg Wagler

[1][2][3] Johann Georg Wagler was a German naturalist and scientist in the 19th century, whose works primarily focused on herpetology and ornithology (Beolens, Watkins & Grayson, 2011).

During this mission across Europe, Johann Georg Wagler was not only made the personal acquaintance of some of the most decorated naturalists and scientists of these nations at the time but also succeeded in acquiring a significant quantity of valuable specimens for the Museum and Menagerie of Munich (Beolens, Watkins & Grayson, 2011).

In 1832, Johann Georg Wagler was unfortunately injured from a self-inflicted gunshot on a hunting trip, an incident that led directly to his demise (Beolens, Watkins & Grayson, 2011).

During his short life span of only thirty-two years, Wagler managed to become a valuable member of the science community with many great and important contributions and discoveries.

Johann Georg Wagler's other books, articles and research papers are currently available for viewing at the Biodiversity Heritage Library (Beolens, Watkins & Grayson, 2011).

[4] Despite the works and contributions in the fields of herpetology and ornithology made during his career (Beolens, Watkins & Grayson, 2011), Johann Georg Wagler did not receive any awards.

Johann Georg Wagler's works have stood the test of time and continue to be used and referenced today for scientific research (Kieckbusch, Mader, Kaiser & Mecke, 2018).

Johann Georg Wagler's contributions to the scientific community in general, ornithology and herpetology in particular, have withstood the test of time for more than one hundred years.

Johann Georg Wagler's works are used nowadays as the foundation for new discoveries, research and experiments in the fields of ornithology and herpetology (Kieckbusch, Mader, Kaiser & Mecke, 2018).

More recently, Wagler's discoveries and works have helped scientists to categorise and research some newfound species from the Iberian Peninsula (Ceríaco & Bauer, 2018).

All species in the genus seem viviparous and share a myriad of morphological characteristics, such as the lack of true gastrosteges, the presence of pelvic spurs, an extremely short tail with conspicuous coloration, and contrasting light and dark ventral blotches.

Two further species, currently in synonymy with Cylindrophis melanotus, were described in the early 20th Century, C. celebensis Smith, 1927 from Sulawesi and C. heinrichi Ahl, 1933 from the Moluccan island of Halmahera.

Among its distinctive characteristics, its modified curly, shiny black crown feathers are one-of-a-kind in the family and are altered to an extent not similar in any other living bird species.

In addition, the type locality given by Wagler possibly indicated the place from where the material collected in Amazonia during the Langsdorff expedition was shipped, the current city of Belém, which was formerly known as “Pará”, capital of the homonymous province.

During the life span of only thirty-two years, Johann Georg Wagler had managed to bring forth many important contributions and discoveries to the scientific community that stands valid and uncontested until nowadays.