Ferdinand Albert Pax (30 December 1885 – 11 September 1964) was a German zoologist who worked at the

University of Wroclaw A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. He was the author of a monograph on the

Hexacorallia Hexacorallia is a Class (biology), class of Anthozoa comprising approximately 4,300 species of aquatic organisms formed of polyp (zoology), polyps, generally with 6-fold symmetry. It includes all of the stony corals, most of which are Colony (b ...

in the series edited by

Willy Kükenthal Willy Georg Kükenthal (August 4, 1861, Weißenfels – August 20, 1922, Berlin) was a German zoologist. He was the older brother of botanist and theologian Georg Kükenthal (1864–1955). Kükenthal specialized in the Octocorallia and on marine ...

. Pax was born in Breslau to the botanist

Ferdinand Albin Pax Ferdinand Albin Pax (26 July 1858 – 1 March 1942) was a German botanist specializing in spermatophytes. A collaborator of Adolf Engler, he wrote several monographs and described several species of plants and animals from Silesia and the Carpa ...

and Marie Serbin. He went to grammar school at Breslau and then to the university. He later moved to Zurich where he majored in zoology. He worked at the Zoological Station in Trieste in 1906 under Carl Isidor Cori (1865-1954) and then at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

where he specialized in marine biology under

Adolf Appellöf Jakob Johan Adolf Appellöf ( Garda on Gotland 2 November 1857 – Uppsala 5 January 1921) was a Swedish marine zoologist. Appellöf matriculated at Uppsala University in 1877, earned his PhD in 1886 and became a docent of zoology in 1887. In 1 ...

(1857-1921). He received a doctorate for his work on corals

Actiniidae Actiniidae is the largest family of sea anemones, to which most common, temperate, shore species belong. Most members of this family do not participate in symbioses with fishes. Three exceptions are the bubble-tip anemone (with anemonefish and ...

from Breslau with the guidance of Kükenthal. From 1912 he worked as a curator at the Museum of the University of Wroclaw and from 1915 as a professor. He surveyed the zoology of several regions including the Mediterranean region, Poland, France and England. He founded the Hofeberg Biological Station at Glatzer Bergland in 1933 which was destroyed in 1946. He also worked at the Marine Biology Institute at

Rovigno Rovinj (; it, Rovigno; Istriot: or ; grc, Ρυγίνιον, Rygínion; la, Ruginium) is a city in Croatia situated on the north Adriatic Sea with a population of 14,294 (2011). Located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, it is a po ...

. He founded a coral research lab at Bremerhaven in 1947. During the second world war, the German military force occupied Wrocław and used the Zoological Museum. To make space they threw away 3200 bird skins from the Kollibay Collection which had been purchased in 1920 for 35000 Marks. After the Soviet troops took over, the wet specimens including corals and sponges were destroyed and the alcohol was drunk but since methyl alcohol was used this resulted in the death of two Red Army soldiers in January 1945. On December 20, 1945, the Biological Station and the private home of the Pax family in the Glatzer mountains were burned down by unknown persons. Animal taxa described by Pax include ''

Parnassius apollo The Apollo or mountain Apollo (''Parnassius apollo''), is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. Etymology The species is named in the classical tradition for the deity Apollo. Subspecies Subspecies include: * ''Parnassius apollo apollo'' L ...

'' L. ssp. ''sztrecsnoensis'' Pax, 1915. Pax married Elisabeth Nohr in 1911 and they had three sons and three daughters. One of the sons was Wolfgang Elpidius Pax (1912–1993) who was a linguist.

References

{{Authority control 20th-century German zoologists University of Wrocław faculty