Scientific description of the gorilla
Descripción científica del gorila
- Date
- 1847 · confidence high
- Place
- Gabon Estuary, Libreville, Estuaire, Gabon
- Credited to
- Thomas S. Savage and Jeffries Wyman
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
In 1847 the missionary Thomas Savage and the anatomist Jeffries Wyman described the gorilla, from skulls collected in Gabon, as a species of anthropoid ape (Troglodytes gorilla). It confirmed a creature mentioned by Hanno the Carthaginian and put the African great apes on the map.
Gabonese people had always known the animal; the 'description' is the formal one for European zoology. The genus was moved to Gorilla (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1852).
What it led to
- comparative anatomy of the great apes
- debate on human evolution after Darwin
- Du Chaillu's expeditions and later field studies