George Griswold Latimer Bates (March 21, 1863, Abingdon, Illinois US – January 31, 1940 Chelmsford UK), LL.D., M.B.O.U. was an American naturalist. He lived in central Africa and travelled widely, collecting specimens of natural history from which numerous new species were described. As many as 62 new species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians were described from his collections, including the Goliath frog, the hairy frog, and the Goliath shrew Crocidura goliath. He published a Handbook of the Birds of West Africa (1930) and was compiling a catalogue of the birds of Arabia. A plant genus Batesanthus was named after him and several species of bird bear his name including the rare Bates's weaver.