Edward Turner Bennett

Edward Turner Bennett was an English zoologist and writer. He was the elder brother of the botanist John Joseph Bennett. Bennett was born at Hackney and practiced as a surgeon, but his chief pursuit was always zoology. In 1822, he attempted to establish an entomological society, which later became a zoological society in connection with the Linnean Society. This in turn became the starting point of the Zoological Society of London, of which Bennett was Secretary from 1831 to 1836. His works included The Tower Menagerie (1829) and The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society (1831). He also wrote, in conjunction with George Tradescant Lay, the section on Fishes in the Zoology of Beechey's Voyage (1839). In 1835, he described a new species of African crocodile, Mecistops leptorhynchus, the validity of which was confirmed in 2018.