Fernando da Costa Novaes

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Fernando da Costa Novaes or Fernando Novaes (born April 6, 1927 in João Pessoa , Paraíba , † March 24, 2004 in Belém , Pará ) was a Brazilian ornithologist . He conducted intensive research on the avifauna of the Brazilian Amazon and is considered a co-founder of modern Brazilian ornithology.

Life

Novaes was the son of Alfredo Wilson Novaes and Joanna da Costa Novaes. He spent most of his childhood and youth in Rio de Janeiro , where nature, which was then still intact, soon aroused his deep interest in natural history. In 1936 he graduated from the Colégio São Bento and from 1937 to 1943 he graduated from the Colégio Vera Cruz. In 1945 he moved to the Moderna Associação Brasileira de Ensino, where he graduated in 1947. In high school , Novaes made the decision to become a zoologist. In 1946 he attended a zoology course at the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), where he learned the techniques of collecting, preparing and preserving zoological specimens. In the same year he became an assistant at the ornithological department of the Museu Nacional da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro , which was directed by Herbert Franzioni Berla . In 1947 he published his first scientific article on the National Museum's mosquito eater collection . In 1949 Novaes obtained a bachelor's degree in natural history from the Universidade do Brasil .

Novaes was strongly influenced by Ernst Mayr's work on the systematics and biogeography of birds on the Pacific islands, as well as by João Moojen and José Cândido de Melo Carvalho . In 1950 he took part in the João Alberto expedition to the Brazilian island of Trindade , the results of which were published in 1952. Influenced by the work of Pierre Dansereau and an exchange of letters with S. Charles Kendeigh , he carried out important quantitative studies on bird communities on sandbanks . Under the direction of José Cândido de Melo Carvalho, he conducted studies on the plumed mite family Analgesidae , which culminated in the first description of a new genus and three new species.

In 1952 Novaes completed his graduate studies and at the invitation of José Cândido de Melo Carvalho he completed his first Amazon expedition to the Rio Paru do Oeste . However, due to a malaria disease, this expedition was unsatisfactory. In 1953 Novaes got a job as a zoologist at the Museu Nacional da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. In 1954, Novaes was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in the United States. He has worked in some of the most important museums and conducted research under the direction of Alden Holmes Miller at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley . The main aim of his project was to investigate in detail the geographic variation and speciation of the genus of the velvet tangar ( Ramphocelus ). During his study visit to the United States, Novaes had contacts with John Todd Zimmer , Robert K. Selander and Richard F. Johnson, among others . He turned down Miller's offer to do his doctorate in the United States, fearing that his contract with the National Museum would not have been extended otherwise.

1956 Novaes was an employee at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) and head of the zoological department of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG). In the same year he accompanied the American paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson on an expedition to the upper reaches of the Rio Juruá . Together with his long-time assistant Miguel Mariano Moreira , he carried out taxonomic and ecological studies of the avifauna in this region, which had not yet been well researched. In addition, the expedition collected insects, fish and mammals, including new species. Back in Belém, he led a series of studies with Cory T. Carvalho on the way of life of some of the most common bird species around Belém. Novaes was involved in the work on the red-tailed shadow hummingbird ( Glaucis hirsutus ) published in the Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, nova série, Zoologia . In 1960, Novaes left the MPEG to take a position as a biologist at the zoological department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the State of São Paulo (now the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo ). Here he had the opportunity to work with Olivério M. de Oliveira Pinto . Before returning to Belém in 1962, Novaes published six studies on the taxonomy and geographic variation of Brazilian birds as a result of his studies in São Paulo.

In 1962 Fernando Novaes finally settled in Belém, where he again worked as a researcher at the MPEG. He was pursuing an old project in the Brazilian Amazon to set up a scientific bird collection according to the best international standards. Despite financial difficulties, lack of material and problems with the maintenance of the biological collections, he succeeded in significantly increasing the MPEG's collections of anatomical specimens and eggs. These collections are now considered the largest in South America. As part of this program, he often visited several places in eastern Pará (from 1965 to 1983), on the Río Xingú (1958), on the middle reaches of the Río Negro (1967), on the island of Marajó (1972), on the Rio Amapá Grande (1975) , on the Río Aripuanã (1975), on the Río Paru de Oeste (1978) and on the Río Trombetas (1982). This combination of field studies and collecting enabled Novaes to compose a number of fundamental monographs on the bird life of some of these regions. These include the two volumes of Ornitologia do Território do Amapá (1974, 1978), a detailed work on the birds of the Río Aripuanã (1976) and a systematic and ecological study of the birds in the upper reaches of the Río Paru de Oeste (1980) . In 1981 the article A estrutura da espécie nos periquitos do gênero Pionites Heine (Psittacidae, Aves) appeared , a detailed study of the species structure of the genus of the white-bellied parrot ( Pionites ). One of the most important works by Fernando Novaes is Aves da Grande Belém-Municípios de Belém and Ananindeua. Pará, which he published in 1998 in collaboration with Maria de Fátima Cunha Lima and the illustrator Antônio Carlos Seabra Martins. The book provides an overview of 482 bird species occurring in the region with detailed information on plumage, size information and way of life.

From 1969 Novaes studied biosciences at the Universidade Estadual Paulista , where he received his doctorate in 1971 with the dissertation Estudo ecológico das aves em uma área de vegetação secundária do baixo rio Amazonas, Estado do Pará under the direction of Gilberto Righi .

Novaes described the subspecies Nonnula ruficapilla inundata of Rotscheitel-toed bird , Platyrinchus saturatus pallidiventris of Zimtkopf-Spatelschnabeltyranns , Procnias albus wallacei the Einlappenkotinga (in collaboration with David C. Oren ) Hylexetastes perrotii brigidai of Whiskered tree climber (with José Maria Cardoso da Silva and David C. Oren), Piprites chloris grisescens of the yellow rein Pipritestyranns and Formicarius analis paraensis of the gray-breasted ant thrush .

Dedication names

The Brazilian ichthyologist Lúcia Helena Rapp Py-Daniel described the catfish species Furcodontichthys novaesi in 1981 . In 1983 Dante Martins Teixeira and Luiz Pedreira Gonzaga named the Alagoas leaf scout ( Philydor novaesi ) in honor of Fernando Novaes. 1985 David C. Oren named the subspecies Zonotrichia capensis novaesi of the morning hammer after Novaes. In 1987 Philip Hershkovitz described the subspecies Cacajao calvus novaesi of the red uakari . In 1988 Robert W. Dickerman named the subspecies Chordeiles pusillus novaesi of the gnome nightjar after Novaes.

literature

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Novaes, Fernando da Costa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Novaes, Fernando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH João Pessoa , Paraíba
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 2004
Place of death Belém , Pará