Green iguana
Date
1731
Creator
Mark Catesby (1683-1749, British), Naturalist
Object type
Library reference
18894
Material
Technique
Subject
Content object
Description
Zoological study of a green iguana, iguana iguana, referred to here as Lacerius indicus, shown climbing up the branch and fruit of a pond apple Annona glabra specimen.
Signed and inscribed below: 'Lacerius ind Anona'
Written in the associated description: 'This Kind of Lizard somewhat resembles a Crocodile or Alligator in Shape, but has a shorterHead, and a serrated Crest on the Ridge of its Back, extending from behind its Head to the middle of the Tail.'
Plate 64 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733. Travelling under the auspices of the Royal Society, Catesby recorded the earliest western scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the ‘New World’. He was the first naturalist to use folio-sized colour plates in a natural history book, and etched the copper plates himself before hand-colouring each individual print with watercolours.
Signed and inscribed below: 'Lacerius ind Anona'
Written in the associated description: 'This Kind of Lizard somewhat resembles a Crocodile or Alligator in Shape, but has a shorterHead, and a serrated Crest on the Ridge of its Back, extending from behind its Head to the middle of the Tail.'
Plate 64 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733. Travelling under the auspices of the Royal Society, Catesby recorded the earliest western scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the ‘New World’. He was the first naturalist to use folio-sized colour plates in a natural history book, and etched the copper plates himself before hand-colouring each individual print with watercolours.