(Karl) Ludwig Rütimeyer (born February 26, 1825 in

Biglen Biglen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Biglen is first mentioned in 894 as ''Pigiluna''. In 1236 it was mentioned as ''Biglun''. The earliest traces of a settleme ...

Canton of Bern The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...

; died November 25, 1895 in Basel) was a Swiss

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 ...

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

and

paleontologist 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 (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

, who is considered one of the fathers of

zooarchaeology Zooarchaeology (sometimes called archaeozoology), also known as faunal analysis, is a branch of archaeology that studies remains of animals from archaeological sites. Faunal remains are the items left behind when an animal dies. These include bon ...

Career

Rütimeyer studied at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It ...

. He began his studies in theology before switching to medicine.Hopwood, Nick. (2015). ''Haeckel's Embryos: Images, Evolution, and Fraud''. University of Chicago Press. p. 92. Additional studies in Paris, London, and Leyden were in natural science. Ultimately, he got a

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

from Bern, becoming the professor of zoology and

comparative anatomy Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in t ...

at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

. An area of specialization was the extinct

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 ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Another area was the history of various mammalian species. His work in zooarchaeology included a report in 1861 about the remains of fish and domesticated animals from Swiss

palafitte Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. The ...

settlements. Rütimeyer was an advocate of evolution but rejected

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

and held anti-materialist views. In the 1860s from his studies of mammal teeth, he placed fossil mammals in some of the first evolutionary lineages. Rütimeyer wrote a supportive review of Charles Darwin's ''

The Descent of Man ''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biolo ...

'' and defended Darwin's ideas. However,

Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...

described Rütimeyer as a "half-Darwinist" and criticized him for his anti-materialist views. Rütimeyer was an advocate of neo-Lamarckian evolution. In 1868, he was the first scientist to criticize Haeckel's embryo drawings, which had been used as justification for the development of

recapitulation theory The theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—often expressed using Ernst Haeckel's phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is a historical hypothesis that the development of the embryo of an ani ...

. He was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1869.

Publications

* ''Lebende und fossile Schweine'', 1857 * ''Beiträge zur Kenntniss der fossilen Pferde'', 1863 and 1878 * ''Die Rinder der Tertiärepoche'', 1878 * ''Crania helvetica'', 1864 * ''Die Grenzen der Thierwelt'', 1868 * ''Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Hirschfamilie'', 1882

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutimeyer, Ludwig 1825 births 1895 deaths Lamarckism People from Bern-Mittelland District 19th-century Swiss zoologists University of Bern alumni