Charles Plumier’s anatomical drawings and description of the American crocodile, Crocodylus acutus (1694–1697)

Abstract

French Minim friar Charles Plumier (1646−1704), craftsman, illustrator, and engraver, but best known for his work as a botanist, devoted the better part of his life to collecting and illustrating plants and animals. Observations made along the coasts of Languedoc and Provence, in the French Alps, on the islands of Hyères in the western Mediterranean, and during three expeditions to the West Indies between 1687 and 1697, provided the foundation for an enormous body of iconographic material extant in the collections of the Bibliothèque centrale du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. His anatomical drawings and description of the American crocodile, Crocodylus acutus Cuvier, 1807 , made while at Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti) during his last voyage (1694−1697), are described and reproduced. Comparisons with earlier, contemporary, and later accounts, especially those of Joseph Guichard Duverney (1648–1730), Thomas Goüye (1650–1725), Hans Sloane (1660−1753), and Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider (1750–1822), are presented, as well as evidence of the originality and scientific accuracy of Plumier’s account.