author
João Moojen
A pioneering Brazilian zoologist, he helped shape the study of the country’s mammals through field expeditions, museum work, and influential scientific writing. His best-known book, Os Roedores do Brasil, became a landmark reference on Brazilian rodents.
1 Audiobook
Speciation in the Brazilian Spiny Rats
by João Moojen
About the author
Born in Leopoldina, Minas Gerais, on December 1, 1904, João Moojen de Oliveira trained in pharmacy in Rio de Janeiro before teaching botany and science early in his career. He went on to become one of Brazil’s important researchers in mammalogy, with a special focus on rodents and primates, while also taking an interest in birds.
Moojen worked as a professor and collaborator at several institutions and took part in many field expeditions. He is closely associated with the development of zoological studies in Brazil, including work linked to the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro and to what is now the Museu de Zoologia João Moojen at the Federal University of Viçosa, which bears his name.
He published a wide range of technical and scientific studies, describing new genera and species of rodents. Among his most remembered works is Os Roedores do Brasil from 1952, a book still noted as a key contribution to the study of Brazilian mammals. He died in Rio de Janeiro on March 31, 1985.