H. Stenholt Clausen

 

Hi All,

      I was surprised to read the announcement of Stenholt Clausen's passing 
in this month's BNL. Clausen is probably a pretty obscure name to most killie 
people today, but in the late 1950's in Africa he was one of the first to 
seriously study and collect West African killifish species. So much of 
Scheel's work was based on fish and information that Clausen, his fellow 
Dane, sent him from the field. Clausen, through Scheel, introduced many 
species to the hobby, not the least of which was the first gardneri 
population -- Akure "yellow" and "blue." Scheel gave the gardneri the wrong 
name (calliurum) and Clausen described them as nigerianum but gardneri they 
were. This fish. more than any other, grew the killie hobby in the late 
1950's.
              Clausen's greatest contribution was his recognition that the 
blue gularis was in fact the fish described as Aphyosemion sjoestedti and the 
fish that had been called "sjoestedti" was an undescribed species that 
Clausen named  Rolofia occidentalis. "Roloffia" as a valid name is sadly gone 
today, but it is not too much to say that Clausen's work on SJO and OCC 
helped to set off the entire inquiry into the names and relationships of so 
many West African killies over the years. Clausen was the pioneer. Along with 
Scheel and Erhard Roloff, Stenholt Clausen was the last of three masters who 
helped to make the worldwide killifish hobby and science what they are today.

Robert E.