Sowerby

The Sowerbys were a British family of naturalists, illustrators, botanists, and zoologists who showed a remarkable lack of imagination in the naming of their sons from the second generation on.

• James Sowerby (1757 - 1822)
  • James De Carle Sowerby (1787 - 1871)
  • George Brettingham Sowerby I (1788 - 1854)
    • George Brettingham Sowerby II (1812 - 1884)
      • George Brettingham Sowerby III (1843 - 1921)

The vast majority of their work was on molluscs and their systematics. Together, they introduced numerous (sometimes the number 5000 is mentioned) taxonomic names. Because they all extensively published in conchology, it is even for professional taxonomists not easy to unravel who of the three "G.B. Sowerby"s is meant by a particular citation. Even with a date attribution is not obvious: e.g. "Sowerby, 1870" might refer to either George II or George III.

References

• Who were the Sowerbys? by Katherine v.W. Palmer, Internet Hawaiian Shell News, January 2002, pp. 17 - 24. Reprint of Hawaiian Shell News, Nov. 1965, pp. 4ff. Available on a CD of back issues of HSN, ISSN 1543-6039.