Pierre-Joseph van Beneden

Born in Mechelen, First French Empire, he studied medicine at the State University of Leuven and studied zoology in Paris under Georges Cuvier (1769–1832). In 1831, he became curator at the natural history museum in Leuven, and from 1836 until 1894, was a professor of zoology at the Catholic University of Leuven. In 1842, he became a member of the Académie des sciences de Belgique, becoming its President in 1881. In 1875, he became a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, and in 1884, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.{{cite web|url=http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|title=Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002|website=Royalsoced.org.uk|accessdate=26 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919152306/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|archive-date=19 September 2015|url-status=dead}}

In 1843, he established one of the world's first marine laboratories and aquariums.{{Catholic|wstitle=Pierre-Joseph_Van_Beneden}}

He was the father of biologist Edouard van Beneden (1846–1910). Pierre-Joseph van Beneden died in Leuven, Belgium.

Van Beneden was a specialist in the field of parasitology, being known for his comprehensive studies on the development, transformation, and life-histories of parasitic worms. In 1858, a treatise on this subject won the Grand prix des sciences physiques of the Institut de France. It was published in the "International Scientific Series" (1875), under the title Les commensaux et les parasites dans le règne animal and was translated into English and German.

He did extensive research in marine biology, and in 1843, established an aquarium and marine laboratory in Ostend.

With French zoologist Paul Gervais (1816–1879), he published an important work on extinct and living cetaceans titled Ostéographie des Cétacés, vivants et fossiles. His interest in this matter had begun during the excavations rendered necessary by the fortifying of Antwerp, when a number of bones of fossil whales were exposed to view. His papers on the extinct species found near Antwerp were published in the Annales du musée royal d'histoire naturelle de Brucelles, and with them was incorporated a description of the fossil seals which were discovered in the same area.

File:Pierre-joseph van beneden.jpg

He introduced the term mutualism in his work Les Commensaux et les Parasites (1875).{{Cite journal |last1=Boucher |first1=Douglas H. |last2=James |first2=Sam |last3=Keeler |first3=Kathleen H. |date=1982 |title=The Ecology of Mutualism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2097071 |journal=Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=315–347 |doi=10.1146/annurev.es.13.110182.001531 |jstor=2097071 |bibcode=1982AnRES..13..315B |issn=0066-4162|url-access=subscription }} He had used the term earlier in 1873 in a communication to the Royal Academy of Belgium.{{Cite journal |last=van Beneden |first=P. J. |date=1874 |title=The Social Life of the Lower Animals |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/271377 |journal=The American Naturalist |language=en |volume=8 |issue=9 |pages=521–530 |doi=10.1086/271377 |bibcode=1874ANat....8..521V |issn=0003-0147|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Bronstein |first1=Judith L. |last2=Alarcón |first2=Ruben |last3=Geber |first3=Monica |date=2006 |title=The evolution of plant–insect mutualisms |url=https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2006.01864.x |journal=New Phytologist |language=en |volume=172 |issue=3 |pages=412–428 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-8137.2006.01864.x |pmid=17083673 |bibcode=2006NewPh.172..412B |issn=0028-646X}}

A selection of books by Pierre-Joseph van Beneden with full text available.

• [https://archive.org/details/animalparasites03josegoog Animal parasites and messmates] (1876)
• [https://archive.org/details/histoirenaturell00bene Histoire naturelle des balénoptères] (1888)
• [https://archive.org/details/mmoiresurlesver00benegoog Mémoire sur les vers intestinaux] (1858)
• [https://archive.org/details/recherchessurla00belggoog Recherches sur la faune littorale de Belgique: crustacés] (1861)
• [https://archive.org/details/lespoissonsdesc00bene Les poissons des côtes de Belgique, leurs parasite et leurs commensaux]
• [https://archive.org/details/histoirenaturell00bened Histoire naturelle des cétacés des mers d'Europe] (1889)

Van Beneden attended the celebration of the tercentenary of the University of Edinburgh and was there made an honorary LL.D. He was a foreign member of the Royal Society and also of the Linnæan, Geological, and Zoological societies of London. He was president of the Royal Belgian Academy in 1881, and was created Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold on the occasion of his professorial jubilee. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1886.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=2 June 2011}} He became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1859.{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001621 |title=Pierre-joseph van Beneden (1809 - 1894) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |date= |accessdate=23 April 2016}} He died in Leuven aged 84 on January 8, 1894. He was always a devout Catholic and, as the writer of his obituary for the Royal Society particularly states, always exhibited "the widest toleration for the views of others".

The extinct Carboniferous fish Benedenius is named after him, whose type species van Beneden had initially described as Paleoniscus deneensis.{{Cite web |title=PBDB |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/basicTaxonInfo?taxon_no=462032 |access-date=2024-03-07 |website=paleobiodb.org}}

{{Reflist}}

• Brice Poreau, [http://www.theses.fr/2014LYO10114 Biologie et complexité : histoire et modèles du commensalisme]. Thesis, largely based on the work by Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden. Thèse d'université, Université Lyon 1, France, 4 July 2014.'' [http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/01/06/39/17/PDF/TH2014_Poreau_Brice.pdf PDF, 351 pages (in French with English abstract)]

• [http://www.earthzine.org/2010/08/18/the-world%e2%80%99s-very-first-marine-research-station-in-ostend-belgium/ Matthias Breyne et al.] The World's very first Marine Station

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{{DEFAULTSORT:van Beneden, Pierre-Joseph}}

Category:1809 births

Category:1894 deaths

Category:20th-century Roman Catholics

Category:19th-century Belgian zoologists

Category:Belgian paleontologists

Category:Belgian Roman Catholic writers

Category:Scientists from Mechelen

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society

Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London

Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences