biology

Thales de Lema

Thales de Lema is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thales de Lema rather than just read about it. In short: Thales de Lema (6 February 1928 – 10 October 2020) was a Brazilian herpetologist, biologist, and university professor. Biography De Lema developed an interest in nature during his childhood.

Key takeaways

Thales de Lema belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thales de Lema to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thales de Lema from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thales de Lema (6 February 1928 – 10 October 2020) was a Brazilian herpetologist, biologist, and university professor.

Biography De Lema developed an interest in nature during his childhood. In 1957, he earned a bachelor's degree (Bacharelado) in natural history from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). He completed an internship in medical zoology at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in 1956 and obtained a licentiate degree (Licenciada) in biology, natural sciences, and mathematics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) in 1958. He began teaching at PUCRS in 1959. In 1968, he specialized in herpetology at the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo, and in 1975 at the Butantan Institute of the São Paulo State Health Department. In 1977, he received his doctorate in natural history from PUCRS under the supervision of Wolfgang Bücherl. His dissertation, titled Estudo monográfico de Elapomorphus lemniscatus Duméril, Bibron et Duméril, 1854, com o estudo de sua variação geográfica (Ophidia, Caenophidia, Colubridae, Colubrinae), addressed speciation in fossorial snakes. From 1977 until his retirement in 2008, De Lema served as a professor at PUCRS. His academic activities included supervising undergraduate and doctoral theses, coordinating environmental impact assessment projects, and conducting research in herpetology (taxonomy, systematics, and biogeography), mariculture, ecology, parasitology, statistics, and anatomy. In 1993, he completed postdoctoral training at the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, specializing in genetics and molecular biology. De Lema’s zoological research focused primarily on the taxonomy of extant snakes. His main research interests included biogeography and speciation, particularly among fossorial snakes of the tribe Elapomorphini. He also conducted studies on polyploidy in salamanders from northern Canada, the Chinese giant salamander, and racer snakes of the genus Masticophis from the Nearctic region. His bibliography comprises more than 300 scientific articles, as well as the book Os répteis do Rio Grande do Sul: atuais e fósseis, biogeografia, ofidismo (2002), which contributed significantly to the understanding of Neotropical snake diversity. He also published research on fishes. In 1955, together with Ludwig Buckup and the Jesuit priest Balduíno Rambo, he founded the Museu de Ciências Naturais do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, which originated from the dissolved natural history collection of the Júlio de Castilhos Museum. He was also a senior scientific researcher at the Zoobotanical Foundation of Rio Grande do Sul (FZRGS), affiliated with the state environmental department, which existed from 1972 until its dissolution in 2020. He also coordinated the Laboratory of Herpetology at the Museum of Science and Technology of PUCRS.

Eponyms In 2005, Paulo Passos, Ronaldo Fernandes, and Noeli Zanella named the snake species Atractus thalesdelemai in his honor.

Taxa described Adelphostigma quadriocellata (Santos, Di-Bernardo & De Lema, 2008) Apostolepis albicollaris De Lema, 2002 Apostolepis christineae De Lema, 2002 Apostolepis kikoi Santos et al., 2018 Apostolepis nelsonjorgei De Lema & Renner, 2004 Apostolepis serrana De Lema & Renner, 2006 Apostolepis striata De Lema, 2004 Apostolepis underwoodi De Lema & Campbell, 2017 Calamodontophis ronaldoi Franco, de Carvalho-Cintra & De Lema, 2006 Contomastix vacariensis Feltrim & De Lema, 2000 Phalotris labiomaculatus De Lema, 2002 Phalotris matogrossensis De Lema, D’Agostini & Cappellari, 2005

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thales de Lema

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thales de Lema claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thales de Lema before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thales de Lema ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thales de Lema

In research: Thales de Lema appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thales de Lema in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thales de Lema is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1928 births, 2020 deaths, Brazilian biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thales de Lema outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thales de Lema in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thales de Lema means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thales de Lema out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thales de Lema in simple terms?

Thales de Lema (6 February 1928 – 10 October 2020) was a Brazilian herpetologist, biologist, and university professor. Biography De Lema developed an interest in nature during his childhood.

Why does Thales de Lema matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thales de Lema?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thales de Lema.