Laurence Monroe Klauber

Laurence M. Klauber (1883 in San Diego, California 3 Mathematics

1968), was an American herpetologist, and was considered to be the foremost authority on rattlesnakes. He was Klauber is thought to have proposed Ulams spiral, an imalso a businessman, inventor, and may have been the rst portant diagram in which prime numbers tend to form
to make an important discovery in mathematics.
diagonal lines, more than thirty years before Ulam, the
mathematician credited with its invention.[1]

4 References
1

Businessman and inventor

[1] Pegg, Jr., Ed (July 17, 2006). Prime generating polynomials. Math Games. Mathematical Association of
America. Retrieved 5 July 2010.

Before becoming a herpetologist, Klauber worked for

many years the San Diego Gas & Electric Company. He
worked his way up in the company from an electric sign
salesman, to become president, then chairman and CEO
of the whole company. He also held 7 U.S. patents for
his electrical inventions.

San Diego Natural History Museum: Laurence M.

Klauber
Shaw, Charles E. (1969). Laurence Monroe
Klauber, 1883-1968. Copeia 1969 (2): 417419.
JSTOR 1442107.

Herpetology

In 1923 the newly opened San Diego Zoo asked Klauber

to identify several species of snake they acquired. Even
though reptiles were not much more than a hobby to him
at the time, he took the job and eventually became Curator of Reptiles at the zoo. In that position, he dedicated the following 35 years of his life to the study of
reptiles, and rattlesnakes in particular. The end result of
that incredible amount of time and amassed data was his
magnum opus, a two volume set of books entitled Rattlesnakes: Their Habits, Life Histories and Inuence on
Mankind, which he published in 1956. It is still considered to be the most complete and authoritative resource
ever written on rattlesnakes.
In his research and eld work, he is credited with identifying 53 new taxa of reptiles and amphibians (such as
Arizona elegans candida, Chionactis palarostris, Pituophis
catenifer pumilis, and Charina bottae umbratica) and has
been recognized by his fellow herpetologists by having
had 14 new taxa named after him (such as Crotalus lepidus klauberi, Ensatina eschscholtzii klauberi, Hypsiglena
torquata klauberi, and Sphaerodactylus klauberi). He donated approximately 36,000 specimens to the San Diego
Natural History Museum, and his personal library and
notes were donated there upon his death.
1

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