François Marie Daudin


François Marie Daudin was a French zoologist.
With legs paralyzed by childhood disease, he studied physics and natural history, but ended up being devoted to the latter.
Daudin wrote Traité élémentaire et complet d'Ornithologie in 1799–1800. It was one of the first modern handbooks of ornithology, combining Linnean binomial nomenclature with the anatomical and physiological descriptions of Buffon. While an excellent beginning, it was never completed.
In 1800, he also published Recueil de mémoires et de notes sur des espèces inédites ou peu connues de mollusques, de vers et de zoophytes.
Daudin found his greatest success in herpetology. He published Histoire naturelle des reinettes, des grenouilles et des crapauds in 1802, and Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des reptiles in 1802–1803. This latter work contained descriptions of 517 species, many for the first time, based on examining over 1100 specimens.
He was assisted by his wife Adèle, who drew the illustrations. Although his books were commercial failures the couple did not live in poverty. She died of tuberculosis in late in 1803, and he followed shortly thereafter, not yet 30 years old.

Taxonomic credits

Despite his short life, Daudin made a lasting contribution to taxonomy.

Birds