Background
His father, Frederick William FitzSimons, and his mother Patricia Henrietta (née Russell), both immigrated to South Africa from Ireland.
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Vivian FitzSimons
Edit ProfileEducation
Vivian FitzSimons attended the prestigious Grey High School in Portuguese Elizabeth.
Career
Also, he contributed to the collection of spermatophyte samples for the National Herbarium which has become part of the South African National Biodiversity Institute at the Pretoria National Botanical Garden. In 1937, together with Anna Amelia Obermeyer, he collected some of the earliest plant specimens from the Eastern Highlands of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Later, as director of the Transvaal Museum, he together with Charles Koch helped to establish the Namib Desert Research Institute in Gobabeb Vivian FitzSimons came from a family of naturalists.
Director of the Transvaal Museum 1946 - 1966 President of the South African Museums Association in 1955 As a leading herpetologist at the Transvaal Museum, Vivian was involved in the original description of as many as 41 South African reptiles, including the following species.
1930. Bradypodion transvaalense - Transvaal dwarf chameleon 1930. Afroedura langi 1930.
Afroedura marleyi - Pondo rock gecko 1930. Platysaurus minor - Waterberg flat lizard 1930.
Scelotes bidigittatus -skink 1930.
Scelotes limpopoensis - Limpopo burrowing skink 1930. Smaug vandami - Van Dam’s girdled lizard 1930. Zygaspis vandami (synonyms: Zygaspis violacea vandami, Amphisbaena vandami ) Lygodactylus chobiensis - Chobe dwarf gecko Pelusios bechuanicus - Okavango mud turtle Rhinotyphlops boylei - Boyle"s beaked blind snake Pachydactylus vansoni - Van Son"s thick-toed gecko Vhembelacerta rupicola - Soutpansberg rock lizard 1937.
Lygodactylus methueni - Methuen"s dwarf gecko Goggia rupicola - Namaqualand dwarf leaf-toed gecko Namazonurus campbelli - Campbell’s girdled lizard Pachydactylus kobosensis Pachydactylus labialis - Calvinia thick-toed gecko, Western Cape thick-toed gecko Pachydactylus robertsi - large-scaled gecko, shielded thick-toed gecko Typhlacontias brevipes - FitzSimons" burrowing skink fr:Vhembelacerta rupicola fr:Namazonurus campbelli Vivian Fitzsimons.
