Johann Karl Ludwig Martin (24 November 1851,

Jever Jever () is the capital of the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony, Germany. The name Jever is usually associated with a major brand of beer, Jever Pilsener, which is produced there. The city is also a popular holiday resort. Jever was granted c ...

(

Ostfriesland East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...

) – 14 November 1942,

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

) was a German

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

. He was professor in geology at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

from 1877 to 1922. From 1880 to 1922 he also was director of the Geological Museum of

. As a scientist he is known for his

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (geology), epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes t ...

and stratigraphical research on the

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

, especially on

mollusk 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 e ...

s. Karl Martin was student at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, where he became PhD in 1874. He then worked as a teacher at

Wismar Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city ...

, where he studied the glacial deposits of Northern Europe. He visited the Museum of Natural History at Leiden to see the collection of Winand Staring, thus meeting the

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 ...

Hermann Schlegel Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German ornithologist, herpetologist and ichthyologist. Early life and education Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimula ...

, the director of the museum. When a

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

in geology was created at Leiden University in 1877, Schlegel remembered Martin as a good candidate. As a professor at Leiden, Martins' research was on the collections of the (in 1880 newly created) Geological Museum, especially on fossils from the Dutch colonies. As director of the museum, he enlarged the collections by new purchases and participating in expeditions to the Dutch colonies: in 1884 to the

Dutch Antilles Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...

, in 1892 to the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

and in 1910 to

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. After his retirement in 1922 Martin continued his research on the

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

stratigraphy of the Dutch East Indies. His successor at Leiden University was B.G. Escher. Among his students were G.A.F. Molengraaff, J.H.F. Umbgrove, L.U. de Sitter and Ph.H. Kuenen. Martin is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of gecko, '' Phyllodactylus martini''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Martin, J. K. L.", p. 170).

References

Sources

*Leidsche Geologische Mededeelingen deel V, 1931, titled ''Feestbundel uitgegeven ter eere van prof. dr. K. Martin'' *G.E. de Groot, 1978: Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie 1878-1978,

Scripta Geologica ''Scripta Geologica'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes on vertebrate and invertebrate palaeontology, palaeobotany/palynology, stratigraphy, petrology, and mineralogy, including gemmology with a focus on systematics. It is publis ...

, Vol. 48 p. 3-2
PDF
*Hoek Oostende L.W. van den, J. Leloux, F.P. Wesselingh, C.F. Winkler Prins (2002) ''Cenozoic Molluscan types from Java (Indonesia) in the Martin Collection (Division of Cenozoic Mollusca), National Museum of Natural History, Leiden'' NNM Technical Bulletin 5 p. 1-13
PDF
*Leloux J., F.P. Wesselingh (2009)''Types of Cenozoic Mollusca from Java in the Martin Collection of Naturalis'', NNM Technical Bulletin 11 p. 1-76
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*A.J. Pannekoek, 1962: Geological research at the universities of The Netherlands, 1877-1962 in Geologie & Mijnbouw, vol. 41 no. 4 p. 161-174 *C.F. Winkler Prins, 2004, Geological collections of the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum (Leiden, The Netherlands): cultural heritage of the geosciences and mining,

Special Issue 4, p. 293-30
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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Karl 1851 births 1942 deaths People from Jever 20th-century German geologists University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of Leiden University Academic staff of Hochschule Wismar 19th-century German geologists