BENEDEN, Pierre Joseph van

Pierre-Joseph van Beneden (1809-1894) was a Belgian zoologist, paleontologist, member of the Académie des sciences de Belgique (1842), the Royal Society of London (1875) and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1884). Between 1877 and 1886 van Beneden published these 5 atlases as part of the ""Annales du Musée royal d'histoire naturelle de Belgique"" on fossil whales from the North Sea Basin. This scientific work is beautifully illustrated with detailed images of full skeletons and smaller fragments in detail. In total there are 232 large, some even double-sized lithographed pl. depicting many figures: vol. 1 (signed by Severeyns): pinnipèdes ou amphithériens: 18 pl., vol. 2: balénides: 39 pl., vol. 3: genres megaptera, balaenoptera, burtinopsis, et erpetocetus: 70 pl. (numbered 40-109), vol. 4: genre plesiocetus: 30 pl., vol. 5: genres: amphicetus, heterocetus, mesocetus, idiocetus, isocetus: 75 pl. Ref. Nissen (ZBI) 308