Laurence M. Klauber was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 herpetologist

Herpetology

Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...

, and was considered to be the foremost authority on rattlesnake

Rattlesnake

Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae . There are 32 known species of rattlesnake, with between 65-70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to Central...

s. He was also a businessman, inventor, and may have been the first to make an important discovery in mathematics.

Businessman and inventor

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

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

, then chairman and CEO of the whole company. He also held 7 U.S. patents

United States patent law

United States patent law was established "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" as provided by the United States Constitution. Congress implemented these...

 for his electrical inventions.

Herpetology

In 1923 the newly opened San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, is one of the most progressive zoos in the world, with over 4,000 animals of more than 800 species...

 asked Klauber to identify several species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

 they acquired. Even though reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s 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

Zoo

A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....

. 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 Influence 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 field work, he is credited with identifying 53 new taxa of reptiles and amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

s (such as Arizona elegans candida, Chionactis palarostris

Chionactis palarostris

The Sonoran shovelnose snake is a small nonvenomous colubrid which is a native of the Sonoran Desert. The specific name, palarostris, is from Latin: pāla and rōstrum...

, 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

Crotalus lepidus klauberi

Crotalus lepidus klauberi is a venomous pitviper subspecies found in the southern United States, in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and northern Mexico, including the states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Durango, Zacatecas, San luis Potosi and Jalisco...

, Ensatina eschscholtzii klauberi, Hypsiglena torquata klauberi, and Sphaerodactylus klauberi). He donated approximately 36,000 specimens to the San Diego Natural History Museum

San Diego Natural History Museum

The San Diego Natural History Museum was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. The present location of the museum in San Diego's Balboa Park was dedicated on January 14, 1933....

, and his personal library and notes were donated there upon his death.

Mathematics

Klauber is thought to have proposed Ulam's spiral, an important diagram in which prime numbers tend to form diagonal lines, more than thirty years before Ulam, the mathematician credited with its invention.