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Women in Brazilian mammalogy:
the pioneers and the prominent members
of the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
Alexandra M.R. Bezerra¹* & Ana Lazar²
¹ Mastozoologia, Coordenação de Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, MPEG, Belém, PA, Brazil.
² Setor de Mastozoologia, Departamento de Vertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
* Corresponding Author: amrbezerra@hotmail.com
Abstract: Despite the relatively short history of the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy (SBMz) with its
31 years, some remarkable women made significant contributions, not only to the SBMz, but also
to the Brazilian mammalogy in general. Even before the consolidation of the SBMz, several women,
regardless of their position in the society and academy, developed and participated in activities that
were essential to the current knowledge on Neotropical mammalogy. To highlight the contributions
of such women and her successors in Mammalogy, we describe the careers and accomplishments
of 21 women in short biographical notes. Our selection includes women that worked from the early
20th century until the beginnings of the 21st century in two categories: SBMz’s members and relevant
non-members. We shall not forget the Archduchess Leopoldine of Austria, an educated and natural
sciences enthusiast that, through her marriage with the Crown Prince D. Pedro I of Brazil, literally
brought in her “wedding baggage” the opening to the natural history knowledge of Brazil in early
XIX century.
Key-Words: Emilie Snethlage; Leopoldine of Austria; Neotropical mammalogy; Research; 20th
century.
Resumo: Mulheres na mastozoologia brasileira: as pioneiras e a Sociedade Brasileira de
Mastoozologia. Apesar da Sociedade Brasileira de Mastozoologia (SBMz) ser relativamente nova (31
anos), algumas mulheres notáveis fizeram significativas contribuições, não somente para a SBMz,
mas para o estudo de mamíferos no Brasil, porém nunca receberam uma merecida homenagem.
Ainda, antes da consolidação da SBMz, algumas delas, a despeito de sua posição na sociedade
e na academia, desenvolveram ou participaram de atos que foram essenciais para o que hoje
conhecemos sobre a Mastozoologia Neotropical. Para divulgar as contribuições dessas importantes
mulheres na mastozoologia, nós elaboramos resumos biográficos de 21 delas, do início do século XX
até o ano 2000, separando os registros entre membros da SBMz e aquelas que não são membros.
Não podemos nos esquecer da Arquiduquesa Leopoldina da Áustria, uma mulher extremamente
culta e interessada em ciências naturais, que no início do século XIX, através de seu casamento com
o Príncipe-herdeiro D. Pedro I do Brasil, literalmente trouxe em sua bagagem de núpcias o que seria
a abertura do Brasil para o conhecimento científico nas disciplinas da história natural.
Palavras-Chave: Emilie Snethlage; Imperatriz Maria Leopoldina; Mastozoologia Neotropical;
Pesquisa; Século XX.
We delineated our essay to include pioneer women
dedicated to studies on the Brazilian mammalian fauna
and women that contributed to consolidate mammalogy
in Brazil (several still contributing to this date). For the
latter group, we have arbitrarily included those women
with PhD completed until 2000 (four exceptions, being
two PhDs, a collection manager and a noblewoman,
are explained in the proper sections). Consequently,
some important women were excluded, but were not
forgotten. Some of the women mentioned herein suf-
fered some kind of prejudice or harassment during their
careers, as most women still do in most professions
nowadays. In spite of that, they have become examples
of successful women and here they are remembered
for their great contribution to mammalogy in Brazil. We
included, when possible, personal notes from our own
experience or the experience of colleagues that have
known, lived and/or worked with some of these excep-
tional women.
The account was organized in chronological order
of their graduation. Their professional information was
taken from Plataforma Lattes (http://buscatextual.cnpq.
br/buscatextual), or other sources when specified, and
the cut-off date was May 2018, when the first draft of
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© 2019 Sociedade Brasileira de Mastozoologia
the text was finalized. The first information between
brackets is the year they obtained their bachelor’s de-
gree, followed when appropriate by the year of death
and the symbol ‘ƚ’. This work was broadly inspired on
Stein (1996) and Kaufman et al. (1996), who highlighted
the contribution of women in the early years of mam-
malogy in the United States of America and in the de-
velopment and consolidation of the first 30 years of the
American Society of Mammalogists, respectively.
EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Emilie Snethlage
(active in Brazil from 1905 to her death in 1929)
The first female who worked with mammals in Bra-
zil was a naturalist, who collected and studied these ani-
mals almost a century before the establishment of the
Brazilian Society of Mammalogy, in 1985. The German-
born Brazilian naturalist Emilie Snethlage (German name
Henriette Mathilde Maria Elizabeth Emilie Snethlage)
was better known for her studies on birds, but also can
easily be considered a mammalogist.
Coming from a Lutheran family, Emilie Snethlage
(Figure 1) since an early age was independent and in-
terested in nature (Snethlage, 1930). She had a home
education but was approved to be a tutor in high schools
(1889) and tutored for 10 years throughout three coun-
tries (England, Ireland and Germany). In 1899, she re-
ceived a small inheritance and could realize her dream
of attending higher education (Snethlage, 1930). She was
one of the first women to study at the University of Berlin,
where she graduated in Natural History (1899). Her PhD
degree (1904) in arthropod muscle morphology was de-
veloped in two universities, Jena and Freiburg, Germany.
Emilie Snethlage came to Brazil in 1905, invited
by Swiss zoologist Emilio Goeldi to work as zoology
assistant at Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi – MPEG (that
time Museu Goeldi), in Belém, Pará State. She was the
first woman employed by the government of the State
of Pará, where she stayed for 17 years. At MPEG she
worked with two directors until 1914, when she was
invited to assume the head of the institution. In 1921,
the funding for the MPEG decreased with the decline of
the regional based economy of latex extraction, and in
1922 Emilie was invited to take a job as a field naturalist
at Museu Nacional, in Rio de Janeiro State. Emilie con-
ducted fieldwork in several occasions and places during
her life as a zoologist in Brazil. Pioneer, one of the most
emblematic moments was the expedition throughout an
unmapped region between the Xingu and Tapajós Rivers
during 1909, in central and western Brazilian Amazonia,
on foot and escorted by seven local indigenous people
(Junghans, 2008).
Emilie undertook at least 18 large expeditions
in Brazil and collected ca. 10.000 birds and mammals,
which are deposited in scientific museums of Brazil,
Europe and United States (Sanjab et al., 2013; Bezerra,
pers. obs.). Her last expedition was in 1929 to the Ma-
deira River, in Porto Velho, Rondônia State, when she got
sick and passed away at age 61. She had 43 scientific pa-
pers published (Junghans, 2008) and among the mam-
mal specimens collected by Emilie, there are several
holotypes of species described by Oldfield Thomas (e.g.,
Thomas, 1910, 1920a, 1920b) and João Moojen (e.g.,
Moojen, 1948), such as the Pale-brown ghost bat Dicli-
durus isabella (Thomas, 1920) and the Rio Negro brush-
tailed rat Isothrix negrensis Thomas, 1920. Due to her
importance in Brazilian mammalogy she was honored
with species named after her, such as the Snethlage’s ti-
grina Leopardus emiliae (Thomas, 1914), the tuff-tailed
spiny tree rat Lonchothrix emiliae Thomas, 1920a (also a
new genus), and the Snethlage’s marmoset Mico emiliae
(Thomas, 1920b) (all of them based on specimens col-
lected by her). Animals of other groups have also been
Figure 1: Emilie Snethlage (left) during a fieldwork in Amazon and (right) seated in a chaise in a balcony of Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio
de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro in 1926. Sources: Emil-Heinrich Snethlage, Snethlage Family collection, and Arquivo Guilherme De La Penha/Museu Paraense
Emilio Goeldi, respectively.
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named after her, e.g., the armored catfish Peckoltia
snethlageae (Steindachner, 1911), the Utinga Surinam
toad Pipa snethlageae Müller, 1914, the Earth snake
Atractus snethlageae Cunha and Nascimento, 1983, the
lizard Loxopholis snethlageae (Avila-Pires, 1995), and
the Madeira parakeet Pyrrhura snethlageae Joseph and
Bates, 2002.
WOMEN IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE BRAZILIAN
Margarete Suñé Mattevi, PhD
Described by her colleagues and friends as a “very
enthusiastic, wonderful, and kind professional and per-
son”, Margarete Mattevi (Figure 2) had an important
role in integrating research and researchers from several
academic areas and countries. She pioneered animal cy-
togenetics in Brazil. Her life was intrinsically linked with
the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS,
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul State, where she ob-
tained all degrees and became professor.
She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Biology in
1963. During her undergraduate studies, she started to
work on human cytogenetics (Salzano, 2014) at the Ge-
netics and Molecular Biology Graduate Program of the
UFRGS. There, she carried out her MSc (1970) and PhD
(1974) projects for her degrees in Genetics and Molecu-
lar Biology.
Margerete was Professor at the Genetics Depart-
ment of UFRGS (1964-1995) and Professor Emerita at
the same department until 2007. After her retirement
she also became Professor at the Universidade Luterana
do Brasil – ULBRA (2001-2011), in Canoas, Rio Grande do
Sul State. She worked actively throughout her life; Mar-
garete passed away in 2013 at the age of 72.
A curiosity about the Margarete’s MSc: her project
on animal cytogenetics was the first MSc thesis finished
at the Genetic and Molecular Biology Graduate program
of UFRGS. She did it in one month, simultaneously with
her PhD in human genetics (Mattevi & Menezes, 2009).
Academic output
Margarete Mattevi was one of the most active Bra-
zilian mammalogists. She had two major research fields,
human genetics and mammalian molecular cytogenet-
ics, with a broad network of national and international
collaborations. In mammalogy, she worked mainly with
Neotropical rodents, marsupials, bats, and ungulates on
cytogenetics, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, and biodi-
versity. Between 1970 and 2011, she markedly contrib-
uted to the knowledge of the Neotropical mammalian
cytogenetics and molecular cytogenetics, publishing 79
papers in scientific journals and five book chapters, and
was referee at least in 13 scientific journals. She super-
vised 44 undergraduate students, 22 masters, 14 PhDs,
and three postdoctoral fellows. Among her ex-students,
several are currently prominent researchers working in
universities and research institutes in Brazil.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
Margarete Mattevi was an active member of the
Brazilian Society of Mammalogy (SBMz) from 1985 to
2008.
Maria Dalva Antunes de Mello, PhD
Dalva (Figure 2) was one of the first parasitolo-
gists with a focus on the Neotropical non-volant small
mammals and endemic zoonosis. She was far ahead of
her time, and beyond her research and teaching activi-
ties she was an art enthusiast, organized art exhibitions,
had four photography books published, and managed a
bar. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Natural History
(1967) by Universidade Federal de Pernambuco – UFPE,
Recife, Pernambuco State, and obtained a specializa-
tion in Health Sciences (1968) at the same university.
Her master’s (1974) and PhD (1980) degrees were in
Parasitology from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
– UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, and Univer-
sidade de São Paulo – USP, São Paulo, São Paulo State,
respectively.
Dalva was Professor at the Nursing Department of
the Health Sciences Faculty of the Universidade de Brasí-
lia – UnB, Brasília, Federal District (1972-1997), and Col-
laborator Researcher there until 2005. Actively working
throughout most of her life, besides being a researcher,
she had excellent administrative skills, demonstrated by
her good relationship with governmental health and en-
vironmental agencies.
Academic output
Maria Dalva markedly contributed to the knowl-
edge of the Neotropical mammalian parasitology. In
her academic life (1967-2005), Maria Dalva edited one
book Roedores da região Neotrópica e patógenos de
importância para o Homem (Mello, 1985), and she has
published 22 papers in scientific journals, and three
book chapters.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
Dalva was the first female President of the board of
directors of SBMz (1991-1994).
Cecília Torres de Assumpção, PhD
Cecília was a great primatologist that worked on
ethology and systematics and passed away at a young
age. She had a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the
USP, São Paulo, São Paulo State (1976), and received a
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PhD degree (1983) from the University of Edinburgh.
Described by colleagues and students as very intelligent,
shy, and serious, Cecília (Figure 3) was an Associate Re-
searcher at Biosciences Institute of USP.
Academic output
Cecília’s PhD thesis (Torres, 1983) was a very impor-
tant study on capuchin monkeys (Sapajus), comprising
337 pages divided in two research fields, ethology and
a systematic revision of the genus. This work has never
been published, but a summary paper of her PhD was
posthumously published (Rylands et al., 2005; Torres,
1988). Cecília also made the Portuguese translation of
the book “Social behaviour of animals” by Deag (1981).
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
In 1982, during the Meeting of the Brazilian Soci-
ety for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) in Campinas,
São Paulo State, Cecília, together with Rui Cerqueira
and Mario de Vivo, raised the need of surveying the real
number of researchers working on mammals in Brazil
(Cerqueira, 2005). Cecília made a list of possible mam-
malogists interested in participating in a future society
and Rui contacted them about this idea; in the follow-
ing two years, the idea of founding a Brazilian Society
of Mammalogy emerged. She was present during the
SBMz founding meeting in 1985, during the XII Brazilian
Zoological Congress held in Campinas, São Paulo State,
being also a founder. Cecília was also the 2nd Secretary of
the Brazilian Society of Primatology (1985).
Eleonora Trajano, PhD
(1977)
Cavernicola and Universidade de São Paulo are the
two main keywords for Eleonora Trajano. With a de-
gree in Biology (1977) from Biosciences Institute of USP,
she developed her entire academic life in that institu-
tion, where she also obtained a MSc degree in Zoology
(1981) and PhD degree in Biological Sciences (1987).
Eleonora (Figure 3) was also a professor in the Zoology
Department of USP (1981-2015), having a Full Professor
appointment from 2006 to 2012 when she retired and
became a Senior Professor until 2015. Currently she is
Professor Emerita of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biol-
ogy Department at Universidade Federal de São Carlos
– UFSCar and teacher in the Bioethics Postgraduate Pro-
gram at the Centro Universitário São Camilo, Pompéia
campus, São Paulo State.
Described by some colleagues as a bulldozer during
fieldwork, Eleonora is always very active. Zoologist in es-
sence, Eleonora has an eclectic professional trajectory,
working from invertebrates to catfishes and bats, but
always with a common denominator, the speleological
world.
Figure 2: Margarete Mattevi in the laboratory (left) and Dalva Antunes (right), with her former husband Frederico Simões Barbosa. Sources: http://
www.ufrgs.br/ppgbmmuseu/index.php/2014-05-23-13-37-21/fotos/item/51-decada-de-1960 and Alessandra S. Barbosa, respectively.
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Academic output
Eleonora Trajano markedly contributed to the
knowledge of the Neotropical speleology and subterra-
nean biology. In mammalogy context, her focus was on
bat interactions in these ecosystems. She has published
up to 87 papers until 2014 in scientific journals, four
books, and 24 book chapters, and was referee at least in
11 scientific journals. She supervised five undergraduate
students, 12 masters, and 12 PhDs.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She participated in the founding of the SBMz in
1985.
Vera Maria Ferreira da Silva, PhD
(1977)
Vera (Figure 3) is one of the main specialists in
Amazonian aquatic mammals, coordinating several proj-
ects aimed at the knowledge and conservation of ceta-
ceans and manatees. She earned her bachelor’s degree
in Biology from UnB (1977), her MSc degree in Fish and
Freshwater (1983) from Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas
Amazônicas – INPA, Manaus, Amazonas State, and the
PhD in Mammalian Ecology and Reproduction (1994)
from University of Cambridge, England.
Vera is Researcher at INPA since 1981, where she
is the leader of the Laboratory of Aquatic Mammals and
Assistant Curator of the Mammal Collection. Since 1993
she also coordinates the Boto Project, a large project of
population biology, ecology, and behavior of two Ama-
zon dolphins, developed at Mamirauá Sustainable De-
velopment Reserve, Amazonas State, Brazil.
Academic output
Vera contributed markedly to the knowledge of
Amazonian aquatic mammals, with a focus on con-
servation and population ecology. Since 1980, she has
published 85 papers in scientific journals, five books,
and 35 book chapters, was referee in at least five scien-
tific journals and member of the editorial board of three
journals. She supervised nine undergraduate students,
28 masters, and six PhDs.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She was also a founder of SBMz and her name ap-
pears in the founding document of SBMz.
Suely Aparecida Marques-Aguiar, PhD
(1979)
“Batgirl”, is how the gentle Suely (Figure 4) is
dubbed by her colleagues from Museu Paraense Emilio
Goeldi – MPEG. With a bachelor’s degree in Biology
(1979) from the Bioscience Institute of USP, she pursued
her MSc in Biology (Ecology) (1984) at INPA, and her PhD
in Biological Sciences (Zoology) (1993) at the George
Washington University, United States of America.
Suely worked almost all her professional life at the
Section of Mammalogy of MPEG (1983-2016), where she
started as a Researcher Fellow and climbed up to Cura-
tor in Chief (1985-2014). Retired in 2016, she still works
at the same institution as an Associate Researcher. Zo-
ologist in essence, she contributed to the development
of what is the third largest scientific mammal collection
of Latin America.
Academic output
Her major research interests include system-
atics, taxonomy, and ecology, with an emphasis on
Neotropical bats. An important contribution for the
Neotropical mammalogy is Suely’s PhD thesis “A sys-
tematic review of the large species of Artibeus Leach,
1821 (Mammalia: Chiroptera) with some phylogenetic
inferences” (Marques-Aguiar, 1994). This work was
primordial for the taxonomic acknowledgement of the
bat genus Artibeus (Phyllostomidae: Stenodermatinae)
Figure 3: Cecília Assumpção teaching (left), Eleonora Trajano in amuse moment with friends (middle), and Vera da Silva in the fieldwork (right).
Sources: Eleonora Trajano, Cleyton F. Lino, and http://museunafloresta.weebly.com/vera-da-silva1.html, respectively.
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and is mandatory in taxonomic studies of the subfamily
Stenodermatinae.
She has published 26 papers in scientific journals
and 17 book chapters and edited five books. She has su-
pervised 15 undergraduate students and four masters.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She was also a founder of SBMz and her name ap-
pears in the founding document of SBMz. She is still an
active associate member.
Cibele Rodrigues Bonvicino, PhD
(1983)
“Multifaceted” could be a good nickname to Cibele
Bonvicino (Figure 4), one of the most active Brazilian
mammalogists at present. She has two major research
fields, human oncology and mammalian systematics,
evolution, and conservation. With an insightful and out-
standing personality, Cibele has been one of the main
contributors to the knowledge of the Neotropical mam-
malogy. With ca. 1,220 citations of her authored or coau-
thored papers, she is the researcher who has described
more new species of Brazilian mammals in the last 25
years. Besides, she carried out hundreds of field expe-
ditions, mainly in the Cerrado and Amazonia domains,
contributing with a large amount of precious material
(from mammal specimens to its parasites, tissues and
blood samples) to several scientific mammal collections,
such as of the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro – MN/UFRJ, MPEG, UnB, and the Labo-
ratório de Biologia e Parasitologia de Mamíferos Silves-
tres Reservatórios – LABPMR, of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz
– FIOCRUZ. Her colleagues describe Cibele as a person
that lifts you up professionally and personally; she great-
ly cares for her students and early career colleagues.
Cibele obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biology
(1983) from the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de
Mesquita Filho – UNESP, Rio Claro, São Paulo State. She
has a MSc degree in Zoology (1988) from the Universidade
Federal da Paraíba – UFPB, and PhD in Genetics (1994)
from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ.
Since 1996, she works as a scientific researcher at
Instituto Nacional de Câncer – INCa, Rio de Janeiro, and
since 2001 is an Associate Researcher at FIOCRUZ, also
in Rio de Janeiro. She is moreover the Curator in chief
of the Mammalian Reference Collection for zoonotic dis-
eases at LABPMR, FIOCRUZ.
Academic output
Her major areas of research interest include evo-
lution, genetics, systematics, cytogenetics, zoonosis and
biogeography of mammals, with emphasis on Neotropi-
cal rodents, marsupials and primates, with a broad net-
work of national and international collaborators. Since
Figure 4: Suely Marques-Aguiar in the mammal collection of Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi – MPEG (left) and Cibele Bonvicino teaching at Sociedade
Brasileira de Mastozoologia meeting (right), at Pontifícia Univerisdade Católica de Minas, Belo Horinzonte, Minas Gerais State. Sources: Mammalogy/
MPEG and Sociedade Brasileira de Mastozoologia, respectively.
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her graduation she has published 147 papers in scientific
journals, written 19 book chapters, and edited an impor-
tant book to field studies of Brazilian rodents species, the
Guia dos roedores do Brasil, com chaves para gêneros
baseadas em caracteres externos (Bonvicino et al., 2008),
and has been referee in at least 16 scientific journals. She
has supervised 42 undergraduate students, 17 masters
and 13 PhDs, and supervised eight postdoctoral fellows.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
Cibele is a founder of SBMz and was the vice-pres-
ident during two terms (2008-2010 and 2010-2012) and
the second female President of the board of directors of
SBMz in two terms (2012-2014 and 2014-2017).
She actively participated on the dissemination and
integration of mammalogy in Brazil and Latin America,
organizing three scientific events and two field courses,
as follow: I Symposium of Mammalian Evolution (2013),
Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro State; VIII Brazilian Con-
gress of Mammalogy (2015), João Pessoa, Paraíba State;
IX Brazilian Congress of Mammalogy (2017), Pirenópolis,
Goiás State, and the courses of “Classification and taxi-
dermy of small mammals”, in Corumbá, Mato Grosso
State (2012), and Ilhéus, Bahia State (2015), respective-
ly. During her terms, she promoted a stronger integra-
tion among the mammalogy societies of Latin America.
Helena de Godoy Bergallo, PhD
(1984)
Nena (Figure 5), as she is known among friends and
colleagues, who describe her as modest and opened to
dialogue, is a very prolific and active Brazilian mammalo-
gist. Her main research field is community ecology, in-
cluding aspects of natural history, parasitology and de-
mography. In the last 24 years, she has been one of the
main contributors to the knowledge of the Neotropical
mammalogy, with ca. 1,550 citations of her authored
and coauthored papers.
Nena has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – UERJ (1984),
and MSc (1991) and PhD (1995) degrees in Ecology
from the Universidade de Campinas – UNICAMP. Since
1996, Nena is Professor at the Ecology Department of
UERJ, where she holds a series of activities participat-
ing in committees, councils, projects, and tutoring and
supervising students. She has also been linked to several
universities and research institutes as Collaborator. She
coordinates the Rede de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade da
Mata Atlântica – PPBio MA (since 2013), an official pro-
gram of Brazilian Ministry of Sciences, Technology, Inno-
vation, and Communication – MCTIC.
Academic output
Nena’s major research interests include communi-
ty ecology, invasive species, conservation, parasitology,
and population ecology of small mammals. Since her
graduation, she has published 150 scientific papers and
34 book chapters, edited six books, and has been ref-
eree in at least 41 scientific journals. She has supervised
almost 100 students, including 31 undergraduates, 34
masters, 22 PhDs, and four postdoctoral fellows.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
Founder of SBMz in 1985, she acted as Second Sec-
retary of the board of SBMz in two terms (1998-2005 and
2005-2008). She organized the IV Brazilian Congress of
Mammalogy (2008), in São Lourenço, Minas Gerais state.
Lena Geise, PhD
(1984)
Lena (Figure 5) is a very active Brazilian mammalo-
gist; she is a researcher, professor, and scientific jour-
nal editor. Her main research field is taxonomy of small
mammals, with other interests including, evolution, bio-
geography and conservation. Like Cibele, Lena carried on
several field expeditions that resulted in the collection of
a large number of small mammal specimens. Her field-
work is focused in the Atlantic Rainforest domain and
the material gathered in these expeditions is mostly de-
posited at Museu Nacional/UFRJ, where they are consid-
ered always very well prepared and precisely annotated.
She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Biology at the
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – UERJ (1984),
Rio de Janeiro State, the MSc degree in Biological Sci-
ences (Zoology) at USP (1989) and the PhD in Genet-
ics at UFRJ (1995). Lena held a postdoctoral fellowship
(2009-2010) at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, USA.
Since 1996, Lena is Professor at the Zoology De-
partment of UERJ. There she holds a series of activities
besides teaching, like participating in committees, coun-
cils, projects, and tutoring and supervising students. In
more recent years she has also shown to be a very good
craftswoman, activity she holds in parallel with teaching
and research.
Academic output
Her major research interests include evolution, sys-
tematics, biogeography and cytogenetics of mammals,
with an emphasis on rodents, marsupials and bats. Since
1987, she has published 69 papers in scientific journals
and 10 book chapters; Lena has been member of edito-
rial board of four journals and referee in at least 25 scien-
tific journals. She has supervised 31 undergraduate stu-
dents, eight MSc, 16 PhDs, and one postdoctoral fellow.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
Founder of SBMz (1985), she acted as First Secretary
of the board of SBMz (2005-2008). She organized four
SBMz scientific events: I Symposium of Mammalian Evo-
lution (2013), Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro State; I and II
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Meeting of mammalogists of Rio de Janeiro State (2012
and 2013), in Teresópolis; and IV Brazilian Congress of
Mammalogy (2008), in São Lourenço, Minas Gerais State.
Since 2013 Lena is editor of the Bulletin of the Bra-
zilian Society of Mammalogy, position that she holds
with commitment and enthusiasm.
Leila Maria Pessôa, PhD
(1985)
Leila (Figure 6) is an enthusiastic mammalogist and
passionate teacher. Her main research line is taxonomy
and evolution of Brazilian small mammals. She is one of
the precursors in high level and complex studies of ver-
tebrate morphometric analysis in Brazil. Very hardwork-
ing and professional, sometimes she seems to be a very
solemn woman, but in fact is an introspective woman
with a big heart.
Leila has a bachelor’s degree in Ecology from
UFRJ (1985), Rio de Janeiro State, MSc in Biological Sci-
ences (Zoology) from UFRJ (1989) and a PhD from UN-
ESP (1995). She did an internship in Molecular Biology
(1993) at University of California, Berkeley and a held a
postdoc fellowship (1998) at Texas Tech University, Lub-
bock, TX, USA.
Since 1993 Leila is Professor at the Zoology Depart-
ment of UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro State, where
she holds several activities regarding the University,
from teaching to participating in committees, councils,
and research projects.
Academic output
Her major research lines include ontogeny and
morphometrics, cytogenetics, and molecular variabil-
ity in Brazilian small mammals, with particular interest
in bats and echimyid rodents. Since her graduation she
has published 67 papers in scientific journals and eight
book chapters, edited one book, and has been member
of editorial board of eight and referee of nine scientific
journals. She has supervised 30 undergraduate, 17 mas-
ters, and eight PhDs students.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She is a founder of SBMz and acted as First Secre-
tary of the board of SBMz (2008-2010). She also edited
a book sponsored by SBMz, Mamíferos de Restingas e
Manguezais do Brasil (Pessôa et al., 2010).
Maria Nazareth Ferreira da Silva, PhD
(1985)
Maria Nazareth (Figure 6) is one of the main spe-
cialists in Amazonian mammals. She described 11 new
species, among primates and rodents, for the Brazilian
Figure 5: Helena Bergallo (left) and Lena Geise (right) in the fieldworks. Sources: Daniel Raíces and Diego A. Moraes, respectively.
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Amazon, being the second most prolific scientist describ-
ing new mammal species in Brazil in the last 25 years.
She has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from UnB
(1985) and a PhD degree in Zoology (1995) from the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley. She held a postdoc fellow-
ship in Taxonomy at UNICAMP (2007-2009), São Paulo
State, and another one at Université de Montpellier (2015),
France. Since 1985 she is a Researcher at INPA, where she
is also the Curator in Chief of the Mammal Collection.
Academic output
Her major research interests include systematics
and taxonomy, with emphasis in morphology and molec-
ular variability of Neotropical rodents and primates. Since
her graduation, she has published 38 papers in scientific
journals and nine book chapters, and edited one book.
She has supervised nine undergraduate students, three
masters, and co-supervised 12 masters and five PhDs.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She is an associate member of SBMz since the
beginning.
Stella Maris Franco, BSc
(1985)
Stella (Figure 7) has two bachelor degrees: Biology
(1985) from UERJ, Rio de Janeiro, and Psychology (1998)
from Faculdades Integradas Maria Thereza, Niterói, Rio
de Janeiro State. She has also two specializations, one
in Clinical Health Psychology in Hospital Context (1999)
from Hospital Getúlio Vargas-Filho, and another in Psy-
choanalysis and Mental Health (2002) from UERJ.
She has been Collection Manager (1988-2013) of
the Mammalogy Division of Museu Nacional/UFRJ – MN/
UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro State. Since 2013 she
works as laboratory assistant in the Department of Phar-
macy of UFRJ, Macaé campus, Rio de Janeiro State.
Stella was in 1993 my (AMRB) first contact in the
Mammal Collection of MN/UFRJ, when I started my first
internship. At that time, only she and a professor worked
there. Some years later, I heard from her a statement
that I will always hold with me: “I love so much working
here (MN/UFRJ) that I decided not to apply for a job in
psychology which is my profile area.” Stella was always
diligent and professional in all respects to the mamma-
lian collection there. We (authors) learned so much with
Stella as she helped us and all researchers and students
that visited the Mammal Collection of MN/UFRJ during
those 25 years.
Academic output
Her major research interests include scientific col-
lection management and museums of natural history.
Since her bachelor’s degree she has published three sci-
entific papers on the Mammal collection of MN/UFRJ in
the international journals (Bezerra et al., 2004; Langguth
et al., 1997; Oliveira & Franco, 2005), edited one book
(Siciliano & Franco, 2005), and presented four communi-
cations in scientific meetings.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She is a founder of SBMz.
Figure 6: Leila Pessôa in amuse moment (left) and Maria Nazareth (right) in the fieldwork. Sources: Leila Pessôa’s Facebook® and Carla Bantel.
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Valéria Fagundes, PhD
(1989)
Valéria (Figure 7) is described by her closest col-
leagues and friends as a very intense professional, with
great enthusiasm to organize and implement new proj-
ects, besides being a natural leader and manager. She
was a pioneer in founding the Animal Genetics Labora-
tory (LGA) at Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo –
UFES, and also in helping to implement a new Graduate
program in Animal Biology in that university.
Valéria has a bachelor’s degree in Biology (1989)
from USP, the same university where later she obtained
a MSc degree (1993) and a PhD degree (1997), both in
Biological Sciences (Genetics). She also held a postdoc
fellowship at USP from 1997 to 2000.
Since 2000, Valéria is Professor at the UFES, where
she held several coordinator positions, such as Biology De-
partment Director (2008-2010), and Coordinator of Grad-
uate program in Animal Biology (2001-2008; 2016-pres-
ent). She was also Curator of the UFES´s Vertebrates
Tissue and DNA Collection. From 2010 to 2016 she has
acted as Technical Scientific Director at the Fundação de
Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Espírito Santo – FAPES.
Academic output
Her major research interests include vertebrate ge-
netics, encompassing evolutive cytogenetics, conserva-
tion genetics, evolution and phylogeography. Since her
bachelor’s degree she has published 45 papers in na-
tional and international journals and two book chapters,
and served as referee for seven scientific journals. She
has supervised 43 undergraduate, 20 masters, 10 PhD
students, and one postdoctoral fellow.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She is an associate member of SBMz and has orga-
nized the III Brazilian Mammalogical Congress in 2005, in
Aracruz, Espírito Santo State.
Leonora Pires Costa, PhD
(1990)
Leo (Figure 7), as her closest friends and colleagues
know her, is a very enthusiastic, dedicated, free spirited,
and proactive mammalogist. She is one of the research-
ers responsible for establishing an important mam-
malogical research group in Espírito Santo State. Due to
her father’s job as Director of university centers in dif-
ferent regions of Brazil, Leo had close experience with
nature during her childhood. Together with her family,
she lived in Manaus, Amazonas State, for two years and
another year in Barreiras, Bahia State, so at age five, she
had already had a good glimpse of the Brazilian biodiver-
sity and wildlife!
Leo has a bachelor’s degree in Biology (Zoology)
(1990) from the UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais
State, and a PhD (2001) in Integrative Biology from the
University of California (UC), Berkeley. During her PhD,
she was curatorial assistant at the Museum of Verte-
brate Zoology and manager of the Evolutionary Genetics
Laboratory, both at UC.
Since 2005, she is Professor at the UFES and Cu-
rator of the Tissue and DNA Collection of the Biological
Sciences Department in that institution. She had also
been collaborator in several universities and research
institutes, including Associate Curator of the Mammal
Collection of the Zoology Department at UFMG.
Even though she obtained her PhD in 2001 (one
year above the cutoff year established for this essay),
Leonora was included here due to the importance of be-
ing a pioneer, together with her collaborator, friend, and
husband Yuri Leite, in founding research lines and labo-
ratories in a historically deficient region of Brazil. Like
Valéria Fagundes some years before, Leonora’s labora-
tory is one of the main contributors to turn the Espírito
Santo State into a center of excellence for studies on
small mammal evolution. Leo has supervised at least 45
students in the last 13 years and has ca. 1,710 citations
of her articles. Her paper, entitled “The historical bridge
between the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest of Brazil:
Figure 7: Stella Franco in amuse moment (left), Valéria Fagundes in a meeting (middle), and Leonora Costa (right) in the Amazon. Sources: Stella
Franco’s Currículo Lattes, Roberta Paresque, and Leonora Costa’s Facebook®, respectively.
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a study of molecular phylogeography with small mam-
mals” (2003) is a seminal contribution to the study of
Neotropical phylogeography, with ca. 460 citations.
Academic output
Her major research interests include biogeogra-
phy, evolution, phylogeography, and taxonomy of small
non-volant mammals. Since her graduation she has pub-
lished 46 scientific papers in national and international
journals and 10 book chapters, edited three books, and
served as referee for 10 scientific journals. She has su-
pervised 25 undergraduate students, 14 masters, four
PhDs students, and two postdoctoral fellows.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She is an active associate member of SBMz and has
organized the III Brazilian Mammalogical Congress in
2005, in Aracruz, Espírito Santo State.
Renata Pardini, PhD
(1992)
Renata (Figure 8) is an ecologist, since her childhood
fascinated with the Brazilian forests, which led her to par-
ticipate in several field expeditions in Amazonia and the
Atlantic Forest during her undergraduate years. She pub-
lished important papers on methodology, which became
inspiring to several biologists and students. She has a
background in zoology and still participates in fieldwork,
collecting and depositing material in scientific collections.
Renata received a bachelor’s degree in Biology
from USP (1992) and a direct PhD in Zoology (2001) from
the same institution, where she pursued a postdoctoral
fellowship in Ecology (2003). Since 2003, she is Profes-
sor at the Zoology Department of USP. She is also col-
laborator at the Universidade Federal da Bahia – UFBA,
Salvador, Bahia State, and UFES. Renata serves as the
representative of the Zoology Department on the board
of IB Mulheres (IB/USP, 2018). The IB Mulheres is a non-
official committee by the Biosciences Institute of USP
that coordinates discussions and mediates conflicts re-
lated to gender, stalking and harassment issues.
As Leonora Costa, Renata’s higher graduation level
was obtained in 2001 (one year above the ‘2000 year’
established for this essay), but she was also included
here due to her great academic importance. Her name
is never missing from conversations or paper references
about community ecology of Atlantic Forest mammals.
Renata is very important in her research field, having al-
most 4,000 citations of her articles.
Academic output
Her major research interests include landscape
ecology, community ecology and conservation biology.
Recently she is focusing in demography, population ge-
netics and study of diseases to explore the patterns of
anthropized landscapes of the Atlantic Forest. Since her
graduation, she has published 66 papers in national and
international journals and 13 book chapters, and she
has been member of the editorial board of three jour-
nals and is referee for 30 scientific journals. She has su-
pervised 15 undergraduate students, 20 masters, eight
PhDs, and three postdoctoral fellows.
Service to the Brazilian Society of Mammalogy
She is an associate member of SBMz and has orga-
nized the V Brazilian Mammalogical Congress (2010) at
São Pedro, São Paulo State.
Alzira Maria Paiva de Almeida, PhD
(1964)
Alzira Almeida (Figure 8) is known by her colleagues
as “The Lady of the Plague”, due to her importance as
specialist in studying the bubonic plague. This respect-
ful and at the same time funny nickname reflects her
strong, professional and kind personality. A pioneer, her
first contact with the subject was in 1966, when she and
her husband, newly married, moved to Exu, Pernambu-
co State. He was hired by the World Health Organization
to help setting up the Plano Piloto de Peste (in English,
Pilot Plan of Plague). This plan was a field laboratory to
investigate the plague ecology, coordinated by the Insti-
tute Pasteur (France), where studies were carried out
during decades. After eight years, Alzira was already in
love with Plague studies (Mello, 2018), and today she
is an internationally recognized specialist. Many of her
papers focus on the role of mammals in the zoonotic
cycle of the bubonic plague, representing an important
contribution to the knowledge on their biology, ecology
and parasitology. She has a very large network of col-
laborations with researchers and institutes worldwide.
Graduated in Nutrition at UFPE (1964), she has a
PhD degree in Microbiology from the Université Paris 7
(1993). In 1969, she became Full Researcher at Centro
de Pesquisas Aggeu Magalhães, FIOCRUZ-PE. Retired
since 2012, she continues working actively as leader of
her research group, coordinator of the “National Refer-
ence Service for Plague” and curator of a Yersinia pestis
culture collection. She is also advisor to the Department
of Health Surveillance of the Ministry of Health and Pro-
fessor Emerita of UFPE.
Alzira teaches field courses in several Brazilian
states. These courses aim to train health professionals
on epidemiological aspects of rodent-borne diseases, in-
cluding the adequate methodological procedures for col-
lecting and handling samples for analysis in laboratory.
Academic output
Her major research interests include microbiology
and parasitology, with emphasis in applied microbiology,
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working on epidemiology, zoonosis, hosts/reservoirs
vectors and diagnosis. Although being retired, she is still
publishing and since 1974 she has published 110 pa-
pers in national and international journals and 12 book
chapters, edited one book, and acted as referee for 19
scientific journals. She has supervised 23 undergraduate
students, 20 masters, 17 PhDs, and three postdoctoral
fellows.
Yatiyo Yonenaga-Yassuda, PhD
(1964)
Yatiyo’s (Figure 9) academic history has a close re-
lationship with USP and the molecular cytogenetics. Her
main research line is cytogenetics and molecular biology
of vertebrates. Precise and visionary, she has kept for a
long time a vertebrate cell and tissue bank, the result of
years of research and dedication. This is an important
material that represents the Neotropical biodiversity
and can be used for cytogenetics and molecular stud-
ies. In recognition of her contribution to Mammalogy, an
echimyid rodent species was named after her, the Yo-
nenaga’s Atlantic spiny-rat Trinomys yonenagae (Rocha,
1996).
Yatiyo has a bachelor’s degree in Natural History
(1964) from USP, and MSc (1964) and PhD (1968) de-
grees in Genetics from that same institution. In 1969,
she became Professor at the Biosciences Institute of
USP. She is also member of the Academy of Sciences
of São Paulo. In 1998, she began to paint, in parallel
with the research, starting a new and also successful
career.
All colleagues that know and worked sometime
with Yatiyo declared she is kind and professional. An
example of her professional and kindness was testified
by one of the authors. I (AMRB) had the opportunity to
work in collaboration with Yatyio in 2013 and, for a par-
ticular study, I needed to associate the field number of
a specimen to the number on a tube of cell suspension.
During months, nobody found these numbers, but Yatiyo
searched tirelessly her files (hard copies included) and fi-
nally found it! I was so happy that I told her, “I love you!”.
We did not know each other in person at that time, but
her reply was: “I’m going to Rio for the I Symposium of
Mammalian Evolution (2013), and I want to meet who
made me this lovely declaration.”
Academic output
Her major research interests include animal cy-
togenetics and molecular genetics, including chromo-
some evolution, rodents and marsupial cytogenetics,
and molecular systematics. From 1965 to 2015 she has
published 113 papers in national and international jour-
nals and three book chapters. Yatiyo, is editorial board
member of “Genetics and Molecular Biology Journal”
and has acted as referee for five scientific journals. She
has supervised eight undergraduate, 13 master, 15 PhD
students, and two postdoctoral fellows.
Figure 8: Renata Pardini (left) and Alzira Almeida (right). Sources: http://www.ib.usp.br/dicom and Alzira Almeida’s Currículo Lattes, respectively.
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Sanae Kasahara, PhD
Sanae Kasahara (Figure 9) was for 40 years Pro-
fessor at the UNESP Rio Claro, São Paulo State, work-
ing mostly on vertebrate cytogenetics, and was known
by her colleagues as a very kind and professional per-
son. She worked on her PhD project under the supervi-
sion of Yatiyo Yonenaga-Yassuda and continued work-
ing on the same research line thereafter. Sanae had
a very important contribution by introducing several
mammalogists into cytogenetic studies and by pub-
lishing important books about vertebrate cytogenetic
methodology.
She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biology from
USP (1971), MSc degree in Genetics from USP (1973),
and PhD in Genetics also from USP (1979). She pursued
a postdoctoral fellowship in Vertebrate Cytogenetics in
France (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique Fontenay
Aux Roses – 1982/1983).
Besides her position at the UNESP Rio Claro, she
has been Research Advisor at several research institutes.
Even after retirement (2004), she continued working as
an Associate Researcher at UNESP. Sanae passed away in
January, 2018.
Academic output
Her major areas of research included chromo-
some painting and vertebrate cytogenetics, with sever-
al studies on rodents. She has published, from 1974 to
2014, 63 papers in national and international journals,
three books and one book chapter. She has supervised
16 undergraduate, seven master, four PhD students,
and one postdoctoral fellow. She also advised many
graduate students (19) in cytogenetic specialization
courses, including currently important mammalogists,
such as Cibele R. Bonvicino, Leila M. Pessôa, and Lena
Geise.
Cleusa Yoshiko Nagamachi, PhD
(active from 1978 to present)
Cleusa Nagamachi’s (Figure 10) major research fields
are vertebrate cytogenetics and chromosome painting
with emphasis in mammals, the same research fields of
her PhD advisor Margarete Mattevi. Cleusa, together with
her husband Julio C. Pieczarka, was responsible for creat-
ing an important research group in mammalian cytoge-
netics in northern Brazil since she was hired as Professor
at the Universidade Federal do Pará – UFPA (1983), Belém,
Pará State. She is an internationally recognized researcher
and has a long-term collaboration with researchers from
the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
She has a degree in Biomedicine (1978) and a MSc
degree in Genetics (1982), both from USP, and a PhD
in Genetics and Molecular Biology from UFRGS (1995).
She held a postdoctoral fellowship from the University
of Cambridge (2004). In 1983, she became Professor at
the UFPA and in 2016 became Full Professor at the same
university.
Academic output
Since 1978 she has published 117 papers in nation-
al and international journals, and three book chapters.
Cleusa has served as referee in five scientific journals.
She has supervised 34 undergraduate, 18 MSc, and
15 PhD students, and currently supervises two postdoc-
toral fellows.
Ludmilla Moura de Souza Aguiar, PhD (1987)
Ludmilla Aguiar (Figure 10) is one of the most ac-
tive Brazilian chiropterologists at present, and recently
(2017) was internationally recognized with the Spallan-
zani Fellow by North American Society for Bat Research
– NASBR. She is the third woman to receive this award.
Figure 9: Yatiyo Yonenaga-Yassuda at her office in Instituto de Biologia/Universidade de São Paulo (rigth) and Sanae Kashara (left, in middle two
students, with Cibele Bonvicino in background) during a cytogenetic course that she done in the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro,
in 2009. Sources: Taís Machado and Leila Pessôa, respectively.
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Her major research field is on population and commu-
nity ecology of bats.
She has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from UFMG
(1987), a MSc degree in Ecology, Conservation and Wildlife
Management (1994) from the same institution, and a PhD
in Ecology from UnB (2000). She pursued a postdoctoral
fellowship at the University of Bristol, England (2014).
Between 2001 and 2009 Ludmilla worked as a sci-
entific researcher at EMBRAPA Cerrados (2001-2009),
Brasília, Federal District. She then (2009) moved for the
Zoology Department of UnB as Professor. Ludmilla chose
to apply for a job in the academia, so she could focus her
research on bats conservation and ecology.
Academic output
Her research focuses on Chiroptera, including dif-
ferent aspects of their biology such as community ecol-
ogy, conservation, population ecology, and bioacoustics.
Since her graduation, she has published 61 papers in sci-
entific journals, and three book chapters. Ludmilla is a
member of the editorial board of Chiroptera Neotropical
journal and has served as referee in 32 scientific jour-
nals. She has supervised 14 undergraduate, 22 master
and six PhDs students.
Ludmilla is also a founder of the Brazilian Bat Re-
search Society (2006) and the Red Latinoamericana y del
Caribe para la Conservación de los Murciélagos – REL-
COM (2007). She organized two large events, the XI Inter-
national Bat Research Conference (1998), at Pirenópolis,
Goiás State, and the VII Brazilian Meeting for Bat Study
(2013), Brasília, Federal District, Brazil. She also created
the Chiroptera Neotropical (1995-2015) and collaborated
organizing the first list of Threatened Bats of Brazil (1995).
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
We could consider the Empress of Brazil, Maria
Leopoldina, as the Patroness of Brazilian mammalogy.
In early XIX century, the Archduchess Leopoldine of
Austria (Figure 11) came to Brazil to join in marriage the
Crown Prince Dom Pedro, son of D. João VI, King of the
United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
Maria Leopoldina, Portuguese name for the German
Caroline Josepha Leopoldine Franziska Ferdinanda von
Habsburg-Lothringen, was daughter of Franz II, the last
Holy Roman Emperor (empire dissolved in 1806) and at
that time King of Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, and Em-
peror of Austria. Because of this engagement, the then
very isolated Brazil started to receive notable young
Figure 10: Cleusa Nagamachi (left) and Ludmilla Aguiar (right) working in the laboratory, respectively. Source: Julio C. Pieczarka and http://www.
unbciencia.unb.br/biologicas/35-zoologia, respectively.
Figure 11: Archduchess Leopoldine of Austria, by Joseph Kreutzinger,
ca. 1815. Source: Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur, Wien.
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naturalists from Germany, Austria and, soon after, from
other European countries (Hershkovitz, 1987). Among
them were important names for Brazilian mammal-
ogy, such as Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix, Alexander
Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied, Johann Natterer,
Peter Wilhelm Lund, and Johannes Theodor Reinhardt
(Bezerra, 2015). These naturalists traveled throughout
Brazil collecting specimens and ethnographic material,
and recording in paintings, drawings and descriptions
the sceneries, indigenous people, flora, and fauna of
Brazil. The most famous expedition in this period was
the ‘Austro-German Artistic Mission’, which included
naturalists that came together with Archduchess Leop-
oldine to Brazil. A set of material and information never
before known to the Brazilian natural sciences, which
are the primordial source for the knowledge of several
research areas in Brazil. Presently, several mammalian
studies could not be complete without consulting the
material and publications derived from these expedi-
tions (Bezerra, 2015). Indeed, the arrival of these natu-
ralists in Brazil was not by chance, since Archduchess
Leopoldine was a very educated woman, as expected
of a child born of the Habsburg House, and was greatly
interested in natural sciences, arts, and culture (Ribeiro,
2005).
Our original intent was to survey the history of
women with important contributions to Mammalogy
in Brazil, but we realized that this would be incomplete
without including a noblewoman, the Archduchess Leo-
poldine of Austria, latterly known as the Empress of
Brazil Maria Leopoldina. A woman nevertheless today
known by those who are not fully familiar with her his-
tory, life and personality, as the “treasured, sad and frag-
ile spouse of D. Pedro I”, consequence of her last years
of life (Graham, 2010). In fact, Leopoldine was very well
educated, impressively intelligent and diligent, who ac-
tively took part in politics, the arts and culture of Brazil.
Researchers of natural sciences in Brazil were enhanced
largely due to her presence here.
Similarly, female scientists (mammalogists in the
present scope) were many times viewed only by their
looks and/or under a patriarchal point of view, need-
ing to overcome difficulties to work and get recognition
by herself and her results. Therefore, we hope that the
readers of this essay have learned at least a little more
about these wonderful researchers. Finally, we would
like to call attention to the large lapse of time between
the arrival of the first researchers to Brazil (early 19th
century) and the time when women effectively started
to work and get recognition in mammalian research
(second half of 20th century).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank to Alberto Akama, Cibele R. Bonvicino,
Rui Cerqueira, José Luís P. Cordeiro, Barbara Costa, Luiz
Flamarion, Jader Marinho-Filho, João A. Oliveira, Leila
M. Pessôa, Daniela M. Rossoni, and Mario de Vivo by
comments and information about some researchers that
we did not personally know. To Alberto Akama, Alzira
M.P. Almeida, Alessandra S. Barbosa, Cibele R. Bonvi-
cino, Alfredo B. Langguth, Clayton F. Lino, Taís Machado,
Diego A. Moraes, Roberta Paresque, C. Pieczarka, Daniel
Raíces, and Roberto V. Vilela for helping us to obtain the
photographs included herein. Alberto Akama, Bárbara
Almeida, Francisca Almeida, Teresa Cristina Avila-Pires,
and two anonym reviewers made important improve-
ments to the prior versions of this manuscript. AL was
supported by CAPES/PNPD (proc. № 1785701/2018)
and ARB by CNPq/DCR (proc. № 300461/2016‑0).
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Submetido em: 03/julho/2018
Aceito em: 23/março/2019
ENSAIOS
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Bol. Soc. Bras. Mastozool., 85: 128-143, 2019
