Born in
Basel on 10 May 1869, Schenkel obtained a chair in
Natural History at the
University of Basel in 1892. Between 1890 and 1902, he was curator at the
Natural History Museum of Basel. There he came into contact with the
herpetologist Fritz Müller and had the opportunity to study
reptiles, as well as
fish and
crustaceans, but he mainly focused on
arachnids, to which he later devoted all his free time. In 1902, he left his position as curator to study
Chemistry, but dissatisfied with that path, he dedicated himself to teaching in a Basel secondary school from 1909 to 1935. His studies focused on the arachnid
fauna of Switzerland,
Ticino, Germany, the
Arctic (
Faroe Islands,
Lapland,
Scandinavia), China, the
Iberian Peninsula, and the islands of
Canaries,
Madeira, and the
Azores. ehren Schenkel described, among others, the species:
Gallotia stehlini, a
lizard endemic to
Gran Canaria and the
Mesalina bernoullii, a lizard endemic to the
Middle East. == Selected publications ==