John Samuel Budgett

John Samuel Budgett (16 June 1872 – 19 January 1904) was a British zoologist and embryologist. He spent most of his short career on the genus Polypterus (bichir). This is found in the lakes, river margins, swamps, and floodplains of tropical central and western Africa and the Nile River system. Zoologists at the time wondered whether it was a bony fish, a cartilaginous fish, a lungfish or a primitive amphibian.

Budgett's work remained the basis of understanding Polypterus development for almost 100 years.

In an earlier expedition with Kerr to the Gran Chaco in central South America, Budgett did useful work on the amphibians of that area and discovered two species of a new genus Lepidobatrachus asper and Lepidobatrachus laevis.

William was a keen microscopist and served on the council of Bristol Museum. He was a keen amateur student of zoology and encouraged his children to study it.

In August 1896, in his third and final year as an undergraduate, Budgett accompanied a newly graduated Kerr on an expedition to the Gran Chaco of South America. Lepidobatrachus was later given the common name Budgett's Frog. A third species has since been discovered.

Conditions were difficult. At times the Pilcomayo is 300 m wide, at times it is a trickle or stagnant swamp, marsh, lagoons, and dense tropical jungle. It has sand banks, confusing channels, and barriers of overturned and floating debris. Nevertheless, by the summer of 1897 Kerr and Budgett brought back to Cambridge a large supply of adult lungfish, with major embryonic and larval phases, so well preserved that the finest detail could be seen. Budgett's skill in manipulation and his knowledge of reagents played an important part in this success.

At the time nothing was known about juvenile Polypterus. This was partly because its habitat was remote and inhospitable and partly because of recurring warfare until the late 1890s. Budgett worked to fill this gap for five years and eventually succeeded, but only at the cost of his life. This contains all his papers as well as a biographical sketch by A. E. Shipley and assessments of his work by several authors

Later Work on Polypterus In a report to the 1907 annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Edwin Stephen Goodrich amassed all the evidence that Polypterus is not a crossopterygian, placing it within the palaeoniscids, the most primitive of the ray-finned (actinopterygian) fishes. This removed Polypterus from the ancestral line leading to amphibians.

Phylogenetic analysis using both morphological and molecular data affirm that Polypterus is a living stem actinoptererygian.

A 1997 study confirmed the early embryonic stages drawn by Budgett and described by Kerr, although fertilisation was shown to be external. Development was found to be much more rapid than for lungfish. They found close similarities between the ontogenies of Polypterus and of urodele amphibians and other 'primitive' amphibians. Other questions that Budgett was hoping to answer are still unanswered.

Publications by Budgett All these papers were republished in Kerr, J.G., ed. (1907b).

Budgett J. S. (1899a) Notes on the Batrachians of the Paraguayan Chaco, with observations upon their breeding habits and development, especially with regard to Phyllomedusa hypochondrialis, Cope. Also a description of a new genus. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Sciences 2 : 305–333.

Budgett J. S. (1899b) General account of an expedition to the Gambia Colony and Protectorate in 1898–99. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1899: 931–937.

Budgett J. S. (1900) Observations on Polypterus and Protopterus. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 10s: 236–240.

Budgett J. S. (1901a) On some points in the anatomy of Polypterus. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 15: 323–338.

Budgett J. S. (1901b) On the breeding habits of some West-African fishes, with an account of the external features in the development of Protopterus annectens, and a description of the larva of Polypterus lapradei. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 16: 115–134.

Budgett J. S. (1902) On the structure of the larval Polypterus. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 16: 315–338.

Budgett J. S. (1903a) Account of journey to Uganda. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 2–10.

Budgett J. S. (1903b) Note on the spiracles of Polypterus. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1903): 25–26.

Other publications Bartsch P., Gemballa S., Piotrowski T. (1997) The embryonic and larval development of Polypterus senegalus (Cuvier 1829): Its staging with reference to external and skeletal features, behaviour and locomotory habits. Acta Zoologica 78: 309–328, cited by Hall.

Budgett, J H. (1907). Note on habits of Polypterus. Pages 291–292 in Kerr J G, ed.

Dean, B. 1895. Fishes, Living and Fossil. An Outline of their Forms and Probable Relationships p. 149. Delhi (India): Narendra Publishing House., cited by Hall

Goodrich, E. S. (1908). On the systematic position of Polypterus. Report of the 77th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1907): 545–546, cited by Hall

Hall, B. K. (2001) John Samuel Budgett (1872–1904): In Pursuit of Polypterus, BioScience, Vol. 51, No. 5 (May 2001), pp. 399–407

Kerr, J.G. (1907a).The development of Polypterus senegalus Cuv. Pages 195–290 in Kerr, J.G., ed. 1907b

Kerr, J.G., ed. (1907b). The Work of John Samuel Budgett, Balfour Student of the University of Cambridge: Being a Collection of His Zoological Papers, together with a Biographical Sketch by A . E. Shipley, F.R.S., and Contributions by Richard Assheton, Edward J.Bles, Edward T. Browne, J. Herbert Budgett and J. Graham Kerr. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press.

Kerr, J.G. (1950). A Naturalist in the Gran Chaco. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, cited by Hall.

Noack K, Zardoya R, Meyer A. (1996). The complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the bichir (Polypterusor natipinnis), a basal ray-finned fish: Ancient establishment of the consensus vertebrate gene order. Genetics 144:1165–1180, cited by Hall

Patterson C. (1982). Morphology and interrelationships of primitive actinopterygian fishes. American Zoologist 22: 241–260, cited by Hall.

Romer, A S. (1946).The early evolution of fishes. Quarterly Review of Biology 21: 33–69, cited by Hall.

Shipley, A. E. (1907). Biographical sketch. Pages 1–55 in Kerr J. G, ed.