John Edward Gray wrote nearly 500 papers, including many descriptions of species new to science. These had been presented to the Museum by collectors from around the world, and included all branches of zoology, although Gray usually left the descriptions of new birds to his younger brother and colleague George. Gray was also active in malacology, the study of molluscs. John Edward Gray was buried at St Mary's Church, Lewisham. Gray was one of the most prolific taxonomists in the history of zoology. He described more than 300 species and subspecies of reptiles, only surpassed by his successors at the British Museum, George
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci include the uterus of a pregnant cow, the hindquarters of a decrepit mule and studies of the musculature of a little dog. Leonardo wrote: All the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put together are equal in thickness to the trunk [below them]. The science of botany was long established by Leonardo's time, a treatise on the subject having been written as early as 300 BCE. Leonardo's study of plants, resulting in many beautiful drawings in his notebooks, was not to record in diagramatic form the parts of the plant, but rather, as an artist