Knud Andersen (mammalogist)

Knud Christian Andersen (29 April 1867 in Frederiksberg – last seen alive June 1918 in England) was a Danish zoologist. His research focused on bats.

Life and work

Towards the end of the 19th century, Andersen first worked as an ornithologist and ran field studies on the Faroe Islands. In 1901 Ferdinand I awarded him an appointment at the Zoological Museum of Sofia. Due to his frustration with the working conditions, he gave up this position.[1] In 1904, he was hired by the British Museum to research bats in the Pacific, in South-East Asia and in Queensland. He was especially interested in the genus Flying Fox and Horseshoe bats, of which he described 15 new species. He published 13 scientific papers on the South-East Asian Horseshoe bats. His most famous work was his Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the Collection of the British Museum, which is considered one of the most extensive works on flying foxes. Andersen was elected fellow of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) in 1909.

In June 1918 he mysteriously disappeared; his body has never been found. His colleague Oldfield Thomas submitted his final manuscript on his behalf and stated that Andersen expected "to be absent from his scientific work for some time."

Dedicated taxa

Rhinolophus anderseni (1909 by Ángel Cabrera; no longer a valid taxon, the subspecies anderseni and aequalis are today considered synonyms of the species Rhinolophus arcuatus and Rhinolophus acuminatus). Dobsonia anderseni (1914 by Oldfield Thomas), Artibeus anderseni (1916 by Wilfred Hudson Osgood).

See also

Selected publications
  • Meddelelser om faeroernes Fugle med saerligt Hensyn til Nolsø, efter skriftlige Oplysninger (with P.F. Petersen), 1894
  • Diomedea melanophrys, boende paa Færøerne, 1894 (English: Diomedea melanophrys in the Faröe Islands, 1895)
  • Sysselmand H.C. Müller’s haandskrevne optegnelser om Færøoerne Fugle (with Hans Christopher Müller), 1901
  • Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the collection of the British Museum, Volume 1, Megachiroptera, (2nd ed.). British Museum (Natural History), London. 1912.
  • On the determination of age in bats, 1917

Species described by Knud Andersen

References
  1. Jon Fjeldså: Danske ornitologer langt fra hjemmet: fra P.W. Lund til international fuglebeskyttelse In: 100-års festskrift Dansk Orn. Foren. Tidsskr. 100 (2006):S. 265-275



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