Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans

He was the son of the noted Dutch astronomer Jean Abraham Chrétien Oudemans and the grandson of the Dutch educator, poet and philologist Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans Sr., after whom he was named. He often used the informal patronymic "Jzn" (for Janzoon) in his publications.

He wrote his dissertation on flatworms, and in 1885, was appointed director of the Royal Zoological Gardens at The Hague. He is credited with the discovery of several insects and of a species of primate (the Black Crested Mangabey).

1892 saw the publication of Oudeman's The Great Sea Serpent, a study of the many sea serpent reports from the world's oceans. Oudemans concluded that such creatures might be a previously unknown large seal, which he dubbed Megophias megophias. Reception of the volume has been described as respectful but "cold". Bernard Heuvelmans later suggested that The Great Sea Serpent was the root of cryptozoology. This was not his only excursion into cryptozoology, however. In 1917 he published Dodo-studiën: naar aanleiding van de vondst van een gevelsteen met dodo-beeld van 1561 te Vere, an article about the study of the extinct Dodo.

In 1895, Oudemans left The Hague to teach biology in the city of Sneek. He published several scientific articles in later years, however. He had married Helena Johanna van de Velde in 1887, but became a widower and remarried with Aletta Amelia Louise Pilgrim in 1919.

Oudemans died in Arnhem in 1943.

Notes

External links

• The Great Sea Serpent, on-line, free PDF file
• From Institut Virtuel de Cryptozoologie In French