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Robert Friedrich Wilhelm Mertens (1 December 1894 – 23 August 1975) was a German herpetology. Several taxa of reptiles are named after him.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii. ("Mertens", p. 176; "Robert", p. 223; "Robert Mertens", p. 223). He postulated Mertensian mimicry.
Mertens was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He moved to Germany in 1912, where he earned a doctorate in zoology from the University of Leipzig in 1915. During World War I, he served in the German army.
Mertens worked at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt for many years, beginning as an assistant in 1919, and retiring as director emeritus in 1960. He also became a lecturer at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1932, and became a Professor there in 1939. Both jobs provided him with ample time for extensive travel and the study of lizards. He collected specimens in 30 countries.
During World War II, he evacuated most of the collections of the Senckenberg Museum to small towns. He also had German soldiers who were fighting overseas collect and ship specimens to him.
He was the author of several books on zoology, including La Vie des Amphibiens et Reptiles (1959). Mertens described at least 64 reptile species, Reptile species described by Mertens, according to the Reptile Database. and numerous amphibian species. Amphibian species described by Mertens, according to Amphibian Species of the World 6.0, an Online Reference. American Museum of Natural History.
Nine species and two subspecies of reptiles have been named after Mertens: Reptile species named after Mertens, according to the Reptile Database. Reptile subspecies named after Mertens, according to the Reptile Database. Amblyrhynchus cristatus mertensi (San Cristóbal Marine Iguana), Amphisbaena roberti (Robert's worm lizard), Chalcides mertensi (Algerian three-toed skink), Cryptoblepharus (Mertens' snake-eyed skink), Erythrolamprus (Mertens' tropical forest snake), Liolaemus (Robert's tree iguana), Micrurus (Mertens' coral snake), Phalotris (Mertens' lizard-eating snake), Phelsuma robertmertensi (Mertens' day gecko), Tropidoclonion (Mertens' lined snake), and Varanus mertensi (Mertens' water monitor). Also Vanderhorstia mertensi (Mertens' shrimp goby) has been named after him.
Mertens died after being bitten while feeding his pet savanna twigsnake, Thelotornis capensis. Because no applicable antivenom existed at that time, he suffered for 18 days before dying. He kept a diary of his deteriorating condition, noting that it was the " für einen Herpetologen einzig angemessene Ende" (the only appropriate demise for a herpetologist).
The death of Robert Mertens parallels that of another well known herpetologist, Karl Patterson Schmidt, almost 20 years earlier. Each was a herpetologist, each was bitten by a venomous colubrid native to Africa, and each documented his symptoms until his death.
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