Giclee reprint of an original lithograph from the Zoological Atlas accompanying the reports of the Voyage autour du Monde sur la Corvette de Sa Majeste La Coquille.

Published sequentially in Paris between 1826 and 1830 by Arthus Bertrand, this landmark work is universally celebrated as one of the rarest, most complete, and visually magnificent records of Pacific biodiversity ever produced.

Commanded by naval captain Louis Isidore Duperrey, the corvette La Coquille was commissioned by King Louis XVIII on a purely scientific circumnavigation. Its specific goal was to explore the remote island systems of the Pacific Ocean, parts of New Guinea, and the South American coast that had been bypassed by earlier navigator. The immense task of surveying the fauna fell to the ship’s assistant medical surgeon, René Primevère Lesson, alongside his colleague Prosper Garnot. Following French naval tradition, medical officers doubled as the onboard naturalists. Lesson, in particular, proved to be an exceptionally gifted zoologist.

The historical name Cuscus macrourus (meaning "large-tailed cuscus" in Latin) was officially coined by French naturalists René Primevère Lesson and Prosper Garnot. They discovered the animal during the historic global voyage of the French corvette La Coquille (1822–1825), commanded by Louis Isidor Duperrey. Lesson and Garnot published the description in their 1826 zoological catalog, Voyage autour du Monde sur la Corvette La Coquille.