Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 79 (1): 133-143, 2006
DOCUMENT
Rodulfo Amando Philippi (1808-1904) is considered one of most influential in the
development of natural sciences in Chile. Among his scientific endeavors, he contributed taxonomic descriptions of the biological
diversity of Chile, encompassing organisms in three living kingdoms: plants, animals and fungi. In this article we examine his
contribution to the knowledge of the biological wealth of Chile, quantifying the number and proportion of current valid species he
described. Our findings indicate that Philippi described 1,670 valid species, equivalent to 5.8 % of the recognized biological diversity for
Chile. His greatest contributions were in vascular plants with 1,017 species descriptions, which represent 19 % of the vascular flora of
Chile. Special mention is made regarding specific groups, such as amphibians, phasmids, dermapterans and dipterans, whose
current diversity includes 14, 30, 16 and 9 % of species described by Philippi, respectively. In comparison to other taxonomists, R. A.
Philippi is the author of the largest number of valid species in the biota of Chile.
Key words:
Chile, botany, natural
history, science history, zoology
