Douglas A. Rossman

Dr. Douglas Rossman
Rossman reading in 2009 at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum
DiedJuly 23, 2015(2015-07-23) (aged 79)
Alma materUniversity of Florida
Known forHis research pertaining to snakes
Scientific career
FieldsZoology
InstitutionsLouisiana State University

Douglas Athon "Dag" Rossman (July 4, 1936 – July 23, 2015)[1] was a U.S. herpetologist specializing in garter snakes. He studied at the University of Florida, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1961.[2]

He was a professor of zoology at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

He co-authored The Amphibians and Reptiles of Louisiana (ISBN 0-8071-2077-4), and also The Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology (ISBN 0-8061-2820-8).

His wife, Nita Jane Rossman[3] (born 1936), also has an interest in herpetology and even had a subspecies named after her: Thamnophis saurita nitae, a subspecies of the eastern ribbon snake. She had collected the holotype for this subspecies on a field trip with her husband for his dissertation research, and he named it in her honor.[4]

Rossman also wrote The Nine Worlds: A Dictionary of Norse Mythology (1983), Where Legends Live: A Pictorial Guide to Cherokee Mythic Places (1988), and several other works related to Norse mythology.

Douglas Rossman is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Mexican garter snake, Thamnophis rossmani.[5]

References

  1. ^ Boundy, Jeff (October 2015). "In Memoriam: Douglas A. Rossman" (PDF). Museum Quarterly. 33 (3). Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science: 35–36.
  2. ^ Photo Archived 2007-04-09 at the Wayback Machine from the University of Florida. URL last accessed 2010-01-21.
  3. ^ Rossman DA (1958). "A New Race of Desmognathus fuscus from the South-Central United States". Herpetologica 14 (3): 158-160. URL last accessed 2010-01-21.
  4. ^ Beltz, Ellin (2006). Biographies of People Honored in the Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America. URL last accessed 2010-01-21.
  5. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Rossman", p. 227).

Further reading

  • Wilson LD, Boundy J (2015). "Douglas Athon Rossman 1936–2015: The Gentle Renaissance Man of Herpetology". Herpetological Review 46 (4): 717-719.