George Shaw (10 December 1751 – 22 July 1813) was an English botanist and zoologist. Shaw published one of the first English descriptions of several common Australian animals. His book was called "Zoology of New Holland" which was released in 1794. He was the first scientist to examine a platypus. He released a description about the animal on his book "The Naturalist's Miscellany" in 1799. He became the first to do so. In herpetology he described a lot of new species of reptiles and amphibians.