The transcontinental birth of a species: scientific discussions and natural history museums in the second half of the nineteenth century

• Carlos Sanhueza Cerda ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Chile

     Universidad de Chile

     Santiago, Chile

     
• Localización: Dynamis: Acta hispanica ad medicinae scientiarumque historiam illustrandam, ISSN 0211-9536, Vol. 37, Nº. 1, 2017 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Saberes y prácticas psiquiátricas en el primer franquismo), págs. 111-131
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • This article is a case study of the scientific discussions on the birth of a zoological species that eventually came to be known as Arctocephalus philippii (Peters, 1866). It also exa-mines the movement of the remains of a sea lion specimen from Chile to Germany and the discussions that arose in regard to its taxonomic definition. The paper argues that the material properties of this mobilized specimen, the circumstances of how it was hunted, transported and stored at the different museums, as well as the material aspects that later allowed it to be compared and analyzed, influenced the international debates on its classification between naturalists in England, Germany, Chile and Argentina. The first part reconstructs the context of sea lion’s capture, transportation and transformation, while the second examines the discussion around this particular specimen — a controversy hinged partly upon the issue of the conditions in which it was graphically reproduced and preserved at the museum.