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dunbaranne | 14:06 Mon 25th Jun 2007 | Quizzes & Puzzles
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Quiz question to which I am really struggling to find anything on the internet - any help would be appreciated.

Surname of 18th/19th century French naturalist who became first director of Natural History Museum in Paris, and after whom a bat is named?
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I think it is Daubenton's bat.
Maybe this will help ......

Bats have had a bad rap throughout the centuries. In more superstitious times, people created stories of a crinkly, ugly animal that flew through the night. They imagined them in the caliber of ghosts evil spirits, and vampires (from the Serbian word wampir) bloodsucking ghosts, dead men�s souls who left their corpses at night to take blood from sleeping victims. Years later, the bat scientifically known as desmontidae was labeled the vampire bat by a French naturalist Buffon. In 1749, he published Natural History, in which he quoted the testimony of travelers and naturalists, as well as his own experience, he implied that these bats suck the blood of humans. Now we know that the vampire bat rarely attacks man. They will, however, attack large animals such as cattle and horses. They do this by selecting a sparsely haired spot on the animal and making a small, superficial bite in its skin with its incisors. They then gorge themselves on the blood that oozes from this wound, sucking it through a tube-like space formed between the tongue and the notched lower lip. Desmodontids have 20 to 26 teeth, with a single pair of large, sharp incisors. Contrary to the legend of the vampire, this wound is small and the animal often does not even realize it has been bitten. The danger from the vampire bat lies in the slow healing of the wound, which can be conducive to infection and parasitic worms, and the transmission of rabies.


Name ......

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon -
Question Author
Thank you so much - I love doing quizzes because of the background information you get on questions. Thanks again.
I disagree with you, Teacher1. Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton was a naturalist who collaborated with Buffon on his Histoire Naturelle (Natural History). He was the first director of the Paris natural history museum, the Mus�um National d'Histoire Naturelle.

Argee2 - It was only a suggestion ! I did say " maybe " !
Question Author
Thank you both - I have done more investigating and it is indeed Daubenton's bat - I love a lively exchange of views!!!!

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