Gerard Krefft

Johann Ludwig (Louis) Gerard Krefft (17 February 1830 – 18 February 1881), was an Australian artist, draughtsman, scientist, and natural historian who served as the curator of the Australian Museum for 13 years (1861–1874). He was one of Australia's first and most influential zoologists and palaeontologists.

He is also noted as an ichthyologist for his scientific description of the Queensland lungfish (now recognized as a classic example of Darwin's "living fossils"); and, in addition to his numerous scientific papers and his extensive series of weekly newspaper articles on natural history, his publications include ''The Snakes of Australia'' (1869), ''Guide to the Australian Fossil Remains in the Australian Museum'' (1870f), ''The Mammals of Australia'' (1871f), ''On Australian Entozoa'' (1872a), and ''Catalogue of the Minerals and Rocks in the Australian Museum'' (1873a).

Krefft was one of the very few Australian scientists in the 1860s and 1870s to support Darwin's position on the origin of species by means of natural selection. According to Macdonald, et al. (2007), he was one of the first to warn of the devastating effects of the invasive species (sheep, cats, etc.) on native species. Also, along with several significant others such as Charles Darwin, during his 1836 visit to the Blue Mountains, Edward Wilson, the proprietor of the Melbourne ''Argus'', and George Bennett, one of the trustees of the Australian Museum Krefft expressed considerable concern in relation to the effects of the expanding European settlement upon the indigenous population. where he was stripped of his position as Australian Museum curator, physically removed from the Museum and his character assassinated often overshadows his early career and his development as a scientist.|Stephens, 2013, p. 187}} Provided by Wikipedia