Caesar Rudolf Boettger (20 May 1888 – 8 September 1976) 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

born in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. He specialized in

malacology Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

, particularly studying the

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

s and

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

s. In 1912 he obtained his PhD from the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

, and in 1914 embarked on a scientific expedition to Africa and the Orient. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was stationed in France and Turkey. In 1932 he became a private lecturer at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

, where in 1938 he was appointed professor of

zoology 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

. In 1947 he became a professor of zoology at

Braunschweig University of Technology Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the No ...

, where he established a museum of natural history. After retirement in 1956, he undertook five research trips to North America (including Mexico and Hawaii). In 1965 he was visiting

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and in 1967/68 took part in a research project of the Naval Medical Field Research Laboratory in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. Boettger has over a dozen species named after him, as well as a

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

genus: * ''

Boettgerilla ''Boettgerilla'' is a genus of air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Boettgerillidae. The generic name ''Boettgerilla'' is named after the German malacologist Oskar Boettger. Taxonomy ''Boettgerilla ...

'' Simroth, 1910. Caesar Boettger is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, ''

Gallotia caesaris Boettger's lizard (''Gallotia caesaris'') is a species of wall lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to the Canary Islands. There are two recognized subspecies. Etymology The specific name, ''caesaris'', is in honor of German m ...

. He was a nephew of German 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 ...

.Coan, E. V.; Kabat, A. R.; Petit, R. E. (15 February 2011)
''2,400 years of malacology, 8th ed.''
, 936 pp. + 42 pp. nnex of Collations American Malacological Society

Bibliography

* ''Die Landschneckenfauna der Aru- und der Kei-Inseln'' (

Land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

s of the Aru and

Kei Islands The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku. The Moluccas have been known as the Spice Islands due to regionally specific plants such ...

); (Treatises of the

Senckenberg The Naturmuseum Senckenberg is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its type in Germany. The museum contains a large and diverse collection of birds with 90,000 bird skins, 5,050 egg sets, 17,0 ...

Nature Research Society, Volume 338), Frankfurt am Main 1922. * ''Die subterrane Molluskenfauna Belgiens'', (Subterranean

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

of Belgium), Brüssels 1939. * ''Die Stämme des Tierreichs in ihrer systematischen Gliederung'', Braunschweig (Vieweg), 1952. * ''Die Haustiere Afrikas'', (Animals of Africa), Jena (VEB G. Fischer), 1958.

References

This article is based on a translation of the equivalent article from the German Wikipedia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boettger, Caesar Rudolf 20th-century German zoologists German malacologists Scientists from Frankfurt Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Academic staff of the Technical University of Braunschweig 1888 births 1976 deaths University of Michigan staff