Carl Chun (1 October 1852 – 11 April 1914) was a German marine

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...

. Chun was born in Höchst, today a part of

Frankfurt 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 ...

, and studied

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 kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

at the University of Leipzig, where from 1878 to 1883 he was

privat-docent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

of zoology and an assistant to

Rudolf Leuckart Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolf Leuckart (7 October 1822 – 22 February 1898) was a German zoologist born in Helmstedt. He was a nephew to naturalist Friedrich Sigismund Leuckart (1794–1843). Academic career He earned his degree from the Uni ...

. After professorial posts in Königsberg (1883–1891) and Breslau (1891–1898), he returned to Leipzig as a professor of zoology.UNI Leipzig Professorenkatalog
(biographical sketch) In 1888, Chun described seasonal vertical migration (SVM) which has a periodicity of ca. 1 year. Chun examined depth-stratified net samples from the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. He explained the seasonal disappearance of jellyfish and crustaceans from the upper pelagial layer of the ocean in terms of their migration to depths below 1000 m. In contrast to

diel vertical migration Diel vertical migration (DVM), also known as diurnal vertical migration, is a pattern of movement used by some organisms, such as copepods, living in the ocean and in lakes. The word ''diel'' comes from the Latin ''dies'' day, and means a 24-ho ...

(DVM) which occurs daily, SVM is still not well understood. He initiated and led the German deep sea expedition (1898/99 "Valdivia" Expedition), which set out on 31 July 1898 from

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

to explore the deep sea in the sub

antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

seas. They visited Bouvetøya, the

Kerguelen Islands The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a lar ...

, and other islands, before returning to Hamburg, where they arrived on 1 May 1899. Chun was a specialist on

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, a ...

s and

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...

. He discovered and named the

vampire squid The vampire squid (''Vampyroteuthis infernalis'', lit. 'vampire squid from hell') is a small cephalopod found throughout temperate and tropical oceans in extreme deep sea conditions. The vampire squid uses its bioluminescent organs and its uniq ...

(''Vampyroteuthis infernalis'', which means "vampire squid from hell"). Chun was also interested in making science accessible to larger audiences. He published in a popular style a narrative of the "Valdivia" expedition, which found a wide resonance (''Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres'', 1900). Andreas W. Daum, ''Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914''. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998, , pp. 330, 428, 480 (2nd ed. 2002 with the same page numbers). He died on 11 April 1914 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as we ...

, Germany, aged 61.

Selected works

* ''Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres'',

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

1900. * ''Allgemeine Biologie'', Leipzig 1915. * ''Die Cephalopoden'', 2 volumes., Jena 1910.

Taxon described by him

*See :Taxa named by Carl Chun

Selected works

See also

Taxon described by him

References

Further reading