Thales de Lema

Thales de Lema (6 February 1928 – 10 October 2020) was a Brazilian herpetologist, biologist, and university professor.

Biography De Lema developed an interest in nature during his childhood. In 1957, he earned a bachelor's degree (Bacharelado) in natural history from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). He completed an internship in medical zoology at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in 1956 and obtained a licentiate degree (Licenciada) in biology, natural sciences, and mathematics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) in 1958. He began teaching at PUCRS in 1959.

De Lema’s zoological research focused primarily on the taxonomy of extant snakes. His main research interests included biogeography and speciation, particularly among fossorial snakes of the tribe Elapomorphini. He also conducted studies on polyploidy in salamanders from northern Canada, the Chinese giant salamander, and racer snakes of the genus Masticophis from the Nearctic region. His bibliography comprises more than 300 scientific articles, as well as the book Os répteis do Rio Grande do Sul: atuais e fósseis, biogeografia, ofidismo (2002), which contributed significantly to the understanding of Neotropical snake diversity. He also published research on fishes. which originated from the dissolved natural history collection of the Júlio de Castilhos Museum. He was also a senior scientific researcher at the Zoobotanical Foundation of Rio Grande do Sul (FZRGS), affiliated with the state environmental department, which existed from 1972 He also coordinated the Laboratory of Herpetology at the Museum of Science and Technology of PUCRS.

Eponyms In 2005, Paulo Passos, Ronaldo Fernandes, and Noeli Zanella named the snake species Atractus thalesdelemai in his honor.

Taxa described