Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda wins Linnean Medal, the ‘Nobel Prize for naturalists’

Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda was this week awarded the Linnean Medal which is considered as the Nobel Prize for naturalists, at a ceremony in London.

He is the first Sri Lanka to win the annual medal bestowed since 1888 to a botanist or a zoologist, or to one of each, in the same year.

Dr. Pethiyagoda is an author, educator and taxonomist and once served as deputy chair of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission. He is also a Rolex laureate.“His impact on biodiversity research in Sri Lanka and beyond through his output and catalytic influence cannot be overestimated,” the award committee wrote, and the author of this commentary explains why this is so.

Amongst his copious outputs, Pethiyagoda has contributed greatly in highlighting the very history of biodiversity in Asia, linking together scientists, artists, travelers, and explorers in both East and West. One of his first books was a comprehensive colour guide to the freshwater fish of Sri Lanka – a best seller.

In November 2020, in a paper published in the journal Zootaxa, an international team of scientists named a new genus of diminutive Asian treefrogs in honour of Sri Lankan scientist Rohan Pethiyagoda.

The genus ‘Rohanixalus’ includes eight species, which range through Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, northeast India, and southern China.

Led by Prof. S.D. Biju and Dr. Sonali Garg of the University of Delhi, the team includes leading scientists also from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. 

Rohanixalus was discovered through a wide-ranging study of DNA, morphology and behaviour in Asian treefrogs, with one of the eight species becoming the first treefrog to be discovered in the remote Andaman Islands. Rohanixalus is also the first non-Sri Lankan genus of animals or plants to be named after a Sri Lankan.

Explaining how they coined the name of the new genus, the authors write in their 55-page paper published on 11 November 2020, ‘The genus is named after Rohan Pethiyagoda from the Australian Museum, in appreciation of his vast taxonomic contributions to herpetological and ichthyological studies in Asia.’ They add that the common name of this group of amphibians will be ‘Rohan’s Tree Frogs’.