author
Nelson Annandale
1876–1924
A pioneering naturalist of British India, he helped shape modern zoological research in the region while ranging widely across anthropology, entomology, and herpetology. His work joined close field observation with a deep curiosity about the people and animals around him.
1 Audiobook
Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa
by Nelson Annandale
About the author
Born in Edinburgh on 15 June 1876, Thomas Nelson Annandale became a Scottish zoologist and anthropologist whose career stretched across several fields, including entomology and herpetology. He is best known as the founding director of the Zoological Survey of India, a role that placed him at the center of early twentieth-century scientific work in South Asia.
Before and during his years in India, Annandale built a reputation for energetic field research. Reliable biographical sources note his travels in the Malay Peninsula and his wide-ranging studies of animals and human societies, showing the unusual breadth that marked his career.
Annandale died in Calcutta on 10 April 1924, at only forty-eight. Even so, he left behind an important institutional legacy through the Zoological Survey of India and a body of work remembered for bringing careful observation and adventurous scholarship together.