Herpetology in Bonn

This book contains an overview of all herpetological research activities that ever took place in Bonn, during the time span from 1809 to 2014. The first part is devoted to university-based research on amphibians and reptiles until today, with a focus on the former natural history museum of Bonn founded with the Prussian university in 1818. It was followed by the Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK) which established an own herpetology section in 1951. Its fast-growing herpetological collection comprises now more than 100.000 specimens. A remarkable part of them has been transferred from historically important university-based zoological museums, and their respective histories have likewise been explored giving the young ZFMK collection a secondary historical perspective. A nucleus of the book is a new, critically evaluated and commented type catalogue with type material of nearly 670 species group taxa. The role of ZFMK’s herpetology in respect to herpetological societies, to teaching and supervising diploma and doctoral students as well as to public education is also described. The author will not conceal that this book is also meant as a kind of balance of what he did at ZFMK in the past four decades.