Original hand-coloured lithograph by Frederick Nodder.
From George Shaws the "Naturalists Miscellany", published in 1790.
Shaw was born atBierton,Buckinghamshire, and was educated atMagdalen Hall, Oxford, receiving his M.A. in 1772. He took up the profession of medical practitioner. In 1786, he became the assistant lecturer in botany at theUniversity of Oxford. He became a fellow of theRoyal Societyin 1789.
Shaw published one of the first English descriptions with scientific names of several Australian animals in his "Zoology ofNew Holland" (1794). He was among the first scientists to examine aplatypusand published the first scientific description of it inThe Naturalist's Miscellanyin 1799.
In the field ofherpetology, he described numerous new species ofreptileandamphibian.
