August Bernhard Brauer (3 April 186310 September 1917) was a German
zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
.
Brauer was born in
Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to:
Places
*Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica
*Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany
**Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony
*Olde ...
. He studied
natural sciences
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
at the Universities of
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
and
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
, obtaining his doctorate in 1895 with a thesis on the
ciliate
The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a differen ...
- ''Bursaria truncatella'' titled ''Bursaria truncatella unter Berücksichtigung anderer Heterotrichen und der Vorticellinen''. In 1892 he received his habilitation at the
University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...
, where he subsequently worked as a lecturer. In 1894–95 he conducted scientific studies in the
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...
.
With other scientists he participated in the "1898–99 German Deep-Sea Expedition" aboard the steamer ''Valdivia'' under the leadership of
Carl Chun (1852–1914). In 1906 he was named director of the Berlin Zoological Museum (nowadays the
Berlin's Natural History Museum), and later in his career he attained the title of "full professor".
Brauer distinguished himself in the field of deep-sea
ichthyology, based largely on his experiences from the 1898–99 "Valdivia Expedition" as well as in his subsequent analyses of species collected on the journey. He was the first to demonstrate that
ceratioids were
mesopelagic
The mesopelagic zone (Greek μέσον, middle), also known as the middle pelagic or twilight zone, is the part of the pelagic zone that lies between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones. It is defined by light, and begins at ...
and
bathypelagic lifeforms rather than bottom-dwelling organisms. He described four ceratioid species new to science, recognizing an overall total of 23 species in three families;
Ceratiidae,
Gigantactinidae and Aceratiidae. He made important scientific contributions towards the multi-volume project- ''Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition auf dem Dampfer "Valdivia" 1898–1899'' (Scientific results of the German deep-sea expedition on the steamer "Valdivia" 1898–1899).
He was the author of ''Die Süßwasserfauna Deutschlands'', a work on freshwater fauna of Germany that was published in nineteen parts from 1909 to 1912. Also, he was an editor of ''Fauna arctica'', a project on Arctic fauna that was originally begun by
Fritz Römer (1866–1909) and
Fritz Schaudinn
Fritz Richard Schaudinn (19 September 1871 – 22 June 1906) was a German zoologist.
Born in Röseningken, East Prussia, he co-discovered, with Erich Hoffmann in 1905, the causative agent of syphilis, ''Spirochaeta pallida'' (also known as ''Tr ...
(1871–1906).
In 1896 herpetologist
Oskar Boettger
Oskar Boettger (german: Böttger; 31 March 1844 – 25 September 1910) was a German zoologist who was a native of Frankfurt am Main. He was an uncle of the noted malacologist Caesar Rudolf Boettger (1888–1976).
From 1863 to 1866 he studied at ...
(1844–1910) named the lizard species ''Janetaescincus braueri'' (
Brauer's burrowing skink) in his honour.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Brauer", p. 37).]
He died in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
.
Source
*Biographical information is based on a translation from an equivalent article at the
German Wikipedia.
See also
*
:Taxa named by August Brauer
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brauer, August
1863 births
1917 deaths
20th-century German zoologists
German ichthyologists
Humboldt University of Berlin faculty
People from Oldenburg (city)
Scientists active at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
University of Freiburg alumni
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
University of Bonn alumni
19th-century German zoologists