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Austrian zoologist (1790?1857)
Johann Jakob Heckel
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Johann_Jakob_Heckel.jpg/220px-Johann_Jakob_Heckel.jpg) Johann Jakob Heckel
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Born
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1790-01-23
)
23 January 1790
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Died
| 12 March 1857
(1857-03-12)
(aged 67)
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Nationality
| Austrian
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Scientific career
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Fields
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Institutions
| Naturhistorisches Museum
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Johann Jakob Heckel
(23 January 1790 ? 1 March 1857) was an
Austrian
taxidermist
,
zoologist
, and
ichthyologist
from
Mannheim
in the
Electoral Palatinate
. He worked at the Royal natural history cabinet in Vienna which later became the Austrian Museum of Natural History.
Life
[
edit
]
Heckel was born in Mannheim, the son of a namesake music teacher and Sophia nee Reinhardt. He also had a namesake brother who studied music and was educated at home and lived in Vienna for a while. Another brother was Karl Ferdinand Heckel (1800-1870) who also studied music. In 1805 the family fled the French to Pressburg and then to Pest. Heckel visited the Georgicon agricultural college in 1806. His father bought a farm in Gumpoldskirchen and after the death of his father in December 1811, his mother took over the farm, assisted by his brother. He married Barbara Baumgartner in 1817 and in 1818 he was working at the Vienna Naturaliencabinet (which later became the
Naturhistorisches Museum
). He studied some botany after meeting
Franz Edler von Portenschlag-Ledermayer
(1772?1822). He was acquainted with both Joseph Natterer Sr. (1754?1823), as well as
Joseph Natterer
Jr. (1786?1852). In 1819-20 he went on collecting trip in southern Europe, collecting birds for Natterer as well as plants and other specimens. He met
Eduard Ruppell
(1794?1884) with whom he climbed Mount Etna. They planned to make a trip to Nubia but it never happened. Heckel developed instruments for measuring fish and some biographers have claimed that he worked briefly as a watchmaker. Though not a formally trained biologist, he worked his way up through the ranks and in 1832 he became an assistant curator. On May 6, 1835, he was given responsibility of the fish collection following the departure of
Leopold J. Fitzinger.
For the most part, he was not a traveler or explorer like many of the scientists of the time, he remained in Vienna, where he studied and catalogued specimens sent to him from the field. Among those who brought specimens to him were
Karl Alexander Hugel
,
Joseph Russegger
and
Theodor Kotschy
— involving collection activities in
Kashmir
, the
Middle East
and northeastern Africa that greatly enriched the Vienna museum. Fish were his specialty and he worked with many of the greatest ichthyologists of his time including
Cuvier
,
Valenciennes
,
Bonaparte
,
Muller
, and
Troschel
.
[1]
[2]
[3]
In the fields of
systematics
and
taxonomy
, he made significant contributions in his investigations of
cyprinids
. He wrote more than 60 works, the most notable of which is "The freshwater fishes of the Austrian Danubian monarchy". He worked on it for more than 24 years but died before its final publication, most likely from
bacteria
he was exposed to while getting a skeleton from a dead
sperm whale
.
[1]
Works
[
edit
]
- Cyprinen, Scaphirhynchus und andere ichthyologica
(1836?1840), with
Johann Natterer
?
Cyprinidae
,
Scaphirhynchus
and other ichthyologica.
- Fische aus Caschmir
, (1838), with Karl Alexander Hugel ? Fish of Kashmir.
- Die Sußwasserfische der osterreichischen Monarchie, mit Rucksicht auf die angranzenden Lander bearbeitet
(with 204
woodcuts
) - The
freshwater fishes
of the
Austrian monarchy
, processed with regard to adjacent countries, with
Rudolf Kner
(1858).
[4]
- Beitrage zur kenntniss der fossilen fische Osterreichs
, (1856) ? Contribution to the knowledge of Austrian fossil fish.
- Neue Beitrage zur Kenntniss der fossilen Fische Osterreichs
, (1861), with Rudolf Kner ? New contribution to the knowledge of Austrian fossil fish.
[5]
Legacy
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edit
]
Fish named after him include:
See also
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References
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External links
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]
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