Joseph Nicolai Laurenti (December 4, 1735 - February 17, 1805) was an Austrian naturalist. December 4 is the 338th day (339th on leap years) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Events 16 April - The London premiere of Alcina by George Frideric Handel, his first the first Italian opera for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. ... February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1805 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as a number of distinct scientific disciplines. ...

Laurenti was the author of Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena (1768) on the poisonous function of reptiles and amphibians. This was an important book in herpetology, defining thirty kinds of reptiles. Carolus Linnaeus's Systema naturae of 1758 defined only ten kinds. Orders  Crocodylia - Crocodilians  Rhynchocephalia - Tuataras  Squamata   Suborder Sauria - Lizards   Suborder Serpentes - Snakes Testudines - Turtles Superorder Dinosauria  Saurischia  Ornithischia The reptiles are a group of vertebrate animals. ... Orders Subclass Labyrinthodontia - extinct Subclass Lepospondyli - extinct Subclass Lissamphibia   Anura   Caudata   Gymnophiona Amphibians (class Amphibia) are a group of animals that include all tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates) that do not have amniotic eggs. ... Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of reptiles and amphibians including their classification, ecology, behavior, physiology, anatomy, and paleontology. ... A painting of Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné  listen, and who wrote under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish scientist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. ...