The oldest drawing specimen collection, Balaenoptera physalus Linnaeus, 1758 (OBS.296787995)

BLOG - Before the invention of photography, everything was explained by hand drawings that required naturalists to be able to draw to describe the specimens they documented. Scholars from taxonomy to medicine had to be able to sketch leaves to the human heart, this is why the academic world at that time had the subject of "art and science".

A tradition that taxonomic drawings are accompanied by a measurement scale usually by placing a measuring tool in millimeters or centimeters or inches that supports scientific sketches has an identification context, but of course there are obstacles to having to document large specimens.

I found a picture of a large specimen: Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758). Uniquely, the specimen with catalogue number: OBS.296787995 and stored at the Observation International, Aarlanderveen, Netherlands, is the oldest I have ever known. The shabby drawing with three folds and worn edges was made in 1547 or more than 500 years old.

Previously I wrote about the oldest collection of preserved plant specimen and the oldest collection of preserved animal specimen. I often imagine the process of documenting and identifying life without a motorbike, camera, JPG, Laptop, HTML, PDF, Google Maps and instant coffee. I try not to get bored.

It is not known who made the drawing. Such a large specimen makes it difficult to place the measuring tool. Observers include human objects as a scale to provide taxonomic context along with descriptions that have become difficult to read.

B. physalus which has the common names fin whale, finback whale and common rorqual first appeared from Carl Linnaeus or Carl von Linné or Carolus Linnæus or Carolus a Linné (1707 Älmhult - 1778 Danmarks-Hammarby) in 1758. He was a great taxonomist who laid the foundations of biological nomenclature and is called the father of modern taxonomy.

The oldest drawing specimen collection, Balaenoptera physalus Linnaeus, 1758 (OBS.296787995) 2

However, the officially recognized genus Balaenoptera came from the description of Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon or comte de Lacépède or La Cépède (1756 Agen - 1825 Épinay-sur-Seine) in his publication Histoire naturelle des cetacées. In Buffon, Histoire naturelle. vol. 37:317, 1804. He was one of the early thinkers of evolution on the transmutation of species.

B. physalus was up to 27 meters long and the second largest mammal that ever lived on earth after the blue whale (B. musculus). Balaenoptera has more than 40 species and subspecies with about 10 species that are extinct and described from fossils.

By Aryo Bandoro
Founder of Dlium.com. You can follow him on X: @Abandoro.

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