Carl Eigenmann ( born Carl H. Eigenmann ; 1863, Oberderdingen - 1927, San Diego) is a German-American ichthyologist, a specialist in the field of taxonomy and distribution of freshwater fish in South America. Together with his wife, Rosa Smith, Eigenman first described several hundred species of fish mainly from North and South America.
| Karl Eigenman | |
|---|---|
| English Carl H. Eigenmann | |
 | |
| Date of Birth | March 9, 1863 |
| Place of Birth | Oberderdingen |
| Date of death | April 24, 1927 ( 64) |
| Place of death | San diego |
| A country | German Empire, USA |
| Scientific field | ichthyology |
| Place of work | |
| Alma mater | Indiana University of Bloomington |
| Taxonomy of wildlife | |
|---|---|
The researcher who described a number of zoological taxa . The names of these taxa (to indicate authorship) are accompanied by the designation " CH Eigenmann " . |
Biography
In 1877, at the age of 14, he emigrated with his parents from Germany to the United States. A few years later he entered the University of Indiana, where he studied under the biologist David Starr Jordan . In 1886, Eigenman received a bachelor's degree and soon left for California, where he met Rosa Smith, whose work on fishes of the west coast gained fame. On August 20, 1887, they got married and entered Harvard University together, where they studied the collections of Louis Agassis and Franz Steindahner studied and published their first joint work.
In 1888, the couple moved to San Diego, California, where Karl worked as a curator of the Natural History Society and helped found the San Diego Biological Laboratory. In 1889, he received his Ph.D. in Indiana and became a professor of zoology there in 1891. A year later, Albert Gunter funded the first expedition of Karl Eigenmann to northwest America, where he collected many until then unknown species of fish. This was followed by several expeditions to study cave fish ( Amblyopsidae ) and salamanders in Indiana, Texas, Missouri, and Cuba.
In 1908, Carl Eigenman embarked on an expedition to South America along Potaro and Essekibo . He returned with 25,000 specimens, which later formed the basis for 128 new species, as well as 28 new genera. He then traveled to Colombia (1912) and to the Andes (1918).
In 1923 he was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences .
After a stroke in 1927, his family returned to San Diego.
Publications
- The leptocephalus of the American eel and other American Leptocephali, CH Eigenmann et al, 1902
- The Freshwater Fishes of British Guiana, including a study of the ecological grouping of species, and the relation of the fauna of the plateau of hatof the lowlands, CH Eigenmann, 1912
- On Apareiodon, a new genus of characid fishes, 1916
- The fishes of Western South America. Part I, CH Eigenmann, 1922