The Sowerbys were a British family of naturalists, illustrators, botanists, and zoologists who showed a remarkable lack of imagination in the naming of their sons from the second generation on.
The vast majority of their work was on molluscs and their systematics. Together, they introduced numerous (sometimes the number 5000 is mentioned) taxonomic names. Because they all extensively published in conchology, it is even for professional taxonomists not easy to unravel who of the three "G.B. Sowerby"s is meant by a particular citation. Even with a date attribution is not obvious: e.g. "Sowerby, 1870" might refer to either George II or George III.
References
Last updated: 07-29-2005 23:19:26
