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William Adam (malacologist)

Belgian malacologist (1909–1988)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 13, 2025
Entity authorityQ2199456 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Adam (27 January 1909 – 3 November 1988) was a Dutch–Belgian malacologist who specialised in cephalopods. Adam described a number of cuttlefish and bobtail squid species, including Euprymna hoylei, Sepia cottoni, Sepia dollfusi, Sepia dubia, Sepia reesi, Sepia sewelli, Sepia thurstoni, Sepia vercoi, and Sepiola knudseni.

Adam was born in The Hague, the son of Constance Jeannette Barkhuijsen and the merchant sailor William Adam. After his schooling in The Hague he visited Java in 1926-27. Upon his return home he studied biology at Utrecht University, obtaining his PhD in 1933 with a dissertation on terrestrial mollusk glands. He then took a position at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels, where he climbed the ranks. In 1952 he became a Belgian citizen.

In 1957 Adam became correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Adam died in Brussels on 3 November 1988 at the age of 79.

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The public source identifies “William Adam (malacologist)” as belgian malacologist (1909–1988). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Adam and malacologist.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1909, 1988, 1926, 1933—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1909-01-27. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with William, Adam and malacologist providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “William Adam (malacologist)”, the useful work is to connect “belgian malacologist (1909–1988)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2199456. VIAF identifies the subject as 24776379. The Library of Congress control number is no2005055589. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1988, 1926 and 1933.

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This entry incorporates text from “William Adam (malacologist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.