Education
University of Würzburg.
University of Würzburg.
In 1869, Oskar Boettger received his doctorate from the University of Würzburg. The following year (1870), he became a paleontologist at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, where in 1875 he became the curator of the museum"s department of herpetology. He is credited for making Senckenberg"s herpetological collection among the best in Europe.
Boettger had agoraphobia and rarely left home, never setting foot in a museum from 1876 to 1894.
Thus he relied on assistants to bring specimens he needed for his research. He was editor of "Katalog der batrachierSammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main" as well as "Katalog der ReptilienSammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main", both catalogs being issued by the Senckenberg Museum.
Also, he was co-author of the herpetology volume for the third edition of Alfred Brehm"s Tierleben. In 1911 famed zoologist George Albert Boulenger (1858–1937) dedicated the species Anolis boettgeri to Boettger, defined as a Peruvian anole of the family Dactyloidae.
A number of other herpetological species/subspecies are named in his honor, including:
Testudo hermanni boettgeri, Eastern Hermann"s tortoise
Xenophrys boettgeri, a species of Asian toad
Calumma boettgeri, circumscribed by Boulenger in 1888
Cacosternum boettgeri, Boettger"s dainty frog
Tarentola boettgeri, Boettger"s wall gecko
Hymenochirus boettgeri, African dwarf frog.
Boettger was also a conchologist or malacologist, and an entomologist who specialized in Coleoptera (beetles). Argonauta boettgeri and Sarcophyton boettgeri are named after him. He named and described some gastropod taxa, including:
Lampedusa Boettger, 1877, a land snail genus
Megalophaedusa Boettger, 1877, a land snail genus.
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.