Karl Gottlieb Grell (28 December 1912,

Burg an der Wupper Burg Castle (german: Schloss Burg), located in Burg an der Wupper ( Solingen), is the largest reconstructed castle in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and a popular tourist attraction. Its early history is closely connected to the rise of the Duch ...

– 4 October 1994) was a German zoologist and protistologist, famous for his work on ''

Trichoplax ''Trichoplax adhaerens'' is one of the three named species in the phylum Placozoa. The others are '' Hoilungia hongkongensis'' and '' Polyplacotoma mediterranea''. The Placozoa is a basal group of multicellular animals (metazoa). ''Trichoplax'' ...

''. Karl Grell received in 1934 his doctorate (

Promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

) 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 ...

, where he wrote his dissertation on the digestive tract of the

common scorpionfly ''Panorpa communis'', the common scorpionfly, is a species of Mecoptera, scorpionfly. Distribution This species is native to Europe (mostly) and Northern Asia. Habitat These scorpionflies can be usually found in hedgerows and patches of Urtica ...

(''Panorpa communis''). Subsequently, he worked primarily on unicellular eukaryotes and the metazoan

Placozoa The Placozoa are a basal form of marine free-living (non-parasitic) multicellular organism. They are the simplest in structure of all animals. Three genera have been found: the classical ''Trichoplax adhaerens'', '' Hoilungia hongkongensis'', a ...

. During WW II, he was assigned to an anti-malarial unit in southeast Europe. At the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...

, Grell was a professor of zoology, teaching protozoology and genetics. He led excursions to study marine protozoa. Grell published in 1956 the first edition of his textbook ''Protozoologie'', which was followed by a German language 2nd edition in 1968 and a 3rd edition (1st English edition) in 1973. From 1959 to 1983 he was a co-editor for the ''Archiv for Protistenkunde''. In addition to his work on ''Trichoplax'', he was known for his research on life cycles of the ''

Foraminifera Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly ...

''. He was an Honorary President of the IX International Congress of Protozoology in Berlin in 1993.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grell, Karl Gottlieb University of Bonn alumni University of Tübingen faculty Max Planck Society people 20th-century German zoologists Protistologists 1912 births 1994 deaths