Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar (11 June 1786 – 4 May 1845) was a German

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

natural scientist Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatabili ...

. Cretzschmar was born at Sulzbach and studied

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

. He taught

anatomy 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

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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

at the Senckenberg Medical Institute 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 na ...

.translated biography
NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie Cretzschmar was the founder and second director of the Senckenberg Natural History Society in 1817.Senckenberg Gesselschaft fur Naturforschung
Cretzschmar-Medaille One of the founding members of the society was

Eduard Rüppell Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell (20 November 1794 – 10 December 1884) was a German Natural history, naturalist and List of explorers, explorer. Rüppell is occasionally transliterated to "Rueppell" for the English alphabet, due to german ort ...

, and the two men collaborated in publishing the results of Rüppell's explorations in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. The ''Atlas zu der Reise im nördlichen Afrika'' ("Atlas of Rüppell's Travels in Northern Africa"; 1826–28) included an ornithological section by Cretzschmar describing around thirty new species, including

Meyer's parrot Meyer's parrot (''Poicephalus meyeri''), also known as the brown parrot, is a species of parrot native to Africa. A Meyer's parrot has grey feathers, turquoise belly, blue rump, and bright yellow markings on the carpal joint of the wings. Most ...

Nubian bustard The Nubian bustard (''Neotis nuba'') is a species of bird in the Otididae, bustard family. This is a medium-large bustard found in the sparsely vegetated interface between the southern margins of the Sahara desert and the northern part of the Sah ...

Goliath heron The Goliath heron (''Ardea goliath''), also known as the giant heron, is a very large wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa, with smaller, declining numbers in Southwest and South Asia. Description This i ...

streaked scrub warbler The streaked scrub warbler (''Scotocerca inquieta''), also known simply as the scrub warbler, is a small passerine bird. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Scotocerca''. It is found in northern Africa and south-western Asia. It is a bi ...

and

Cretzschmar's bunting Cretzschmar's bunting (''Emberiza caesia'') is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. It breeds in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and the Levant. It is migratory ...

. In the field of

mammalogy In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part o ...

, he is the binomial author of the

scimitar-horned oryx The scimitar oryx (''Oryx dammah''), also known as the scimitar-horned oryx and the Sahara oryx, is a ''Oryx'' species that was once widespread across North Africa. In 2000, it was declared extinct in the wild on the IUCN Red List. A captive bre ...

and

Soemmerring's gazelle Soemmerring's gazelle (''Nanger soemmerringii''), also known as the Abyssinian mohr, is a gazelle species native to the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan). The species was described and given its binomen by Germ ...

.Birdlife.org
Streaked Scrub-warbler, Scotocerca inquieta The "Cretzschmar-Medaille" is an award offered by the Senckenberg foundation for outstanding work in natural sciences.

References

1786 births 1845 deaths German ornithologists 19th-century German zoologists Burials at Frankfurt Main Cemetery People from Main-Taunus-Kreis German Freemasons Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina University of Würzburg alumni {{Ornithologist-stub