Dominic Serventy Explained

Dominic Serventy
Birth Name:Dominic Louis Serventy
Birth Place:Brown Hill, Western Australia
Birth Date:28 March 1904
Death Date:8 August 1988 (aged 84)
Occupation:Ornithologist, author
Office:President of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union
Term Start:1947
Term End:1949

Dominic Louis Serventy (28 March 1904 – 8 August 1988) was a Perth-based Western Australian ornithologist. He was president of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) 1947–1949. He assisted with the initial organisation of the British Museum's series of Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expeditions during the 1960s, also participating in the third (1965) expedition.

Early life

He was born at Brown Hill, Western Australia to parents of Croatian origin. He was educated at the University of Western Australia and Cambridge University.

Career

He co-authored (with H. M. Whittell) of Birds of Western Australia, (published in five editions between 1948 and 1976), and (with John Warham and his brother Vincent Serventy, a popular naturalist) of The Handbook of Australian Sea-birds (1971).

Legacy

He is commemorated by the RAOU's D.L. Serventy Medal which is awarded annually for outstanding published work on birds in the Australasian region.[1]

Dominic Serventy is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Australian lizard, Ctenotus serventyi.[2] Dominic and Vincent Serventy are commemorated in the species' epithet of the extinct cormorant Microcarbo serventyorum, described by Gerard Frederick van Tets in 1994.

Honours

References

Notes and References

  1. D.L. Serventy - detailed obituary - in 'The Emu', Sept. 1989, p. 183-184, and the Ibis (London, England), Vol. 131, No. 3, (July 1989), p. 448-450; the Western Australian Naturalist, 6/1/1989, p. 201-225; and Western Australian bird notes, Nov. 1988, p. 5,
  2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Serventy", p. 241).