Editing Ichthyology (section)

=== Modern era ===

Close to the dawn of the 19th century, [[Marcus Elieser Bloch]] of [[Berlin]] and [[Georges Cuvier]] of [[Paris]] made attempts to consolidate the knowledge of ichthyology. Cuvier summarized all of the available information in his monumental ''[[Histoire Naturelle des Poissons]]''. This manuscript was published between 1828 and 1849 in a 22-volume series. This document describes 4,514 species of fish, 2,311 of these new to science. It remains one of the most ambitious treatises of the modern world. Scientific exploration of the Americas advanced knowledge of the remarkable [[diversity of fish]]. [[Charles Alexandre Lesueur]] was a student of Cuvier. He made a cabinet of fish dwelling within the [[Great Lakes]] and [[Saint Lawrence River]] regions.

Adventurous individuals such as [[John James Audubon]] and [[Constantine Samuel Rafinesque]] figure in the faunal documentation of North America. They often traveled with one another. Rafinesque wrote ''Ichthyologic Ohiensis'' in 1820. In addition, [[Louis Agassiz]] of [[Switzerland]] established his reputation through the study of freshwater fish and the first comprehensive treatment of palaeoichthyology, ''Poisson Fossil's''. In the 1840s, Agassiz moved to the United States, where he taught at [[Harvard University]] until his death in 1873.

[[Albert Günther]] published his ''Catalogue of the Fish of the British Museum'' between 1859 and 1870, describing over 6,800 species and mentioning another 1,700. Generally considered one of the most influential ichthyologists, [[David Starr Jordan]] wrote 650 articles and books on the subject and served as president of [[Indiana University (Bloomington)|Indiana University]] and [[Stanford University]].