Franz Theodor Wolf (February 13, 1841 - June 22, 1924) was a German naturalist who studied the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

during the late nineteenth century.

Wolf Island Wolf Island (Spanish: ''Isla Wolf'') or Wenman Island is a small island in the Galápagos Islands and was named after the German geologist Theodor Wolf, who also has the volcano Wolf on Isabela Island named after him. It has an area of and a m ...

(Wenman Island) is named after him. The peak

Volcán Wolf Wolf Volcano ( es, Volcán Wolf, italic=no), also known as Mount Whiton, is the highest peak in the Galápagos Islands. It is situated on Isabela Island and reaches . It is a shield volcano with a characteristic upturned soup bowl shape. The vo ...

on Isabela Island is also named after him. He was born at

Bartholomä Bartholomä is a municipality in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, in Ostalbkreis district. Bartholomä is mainly a commuter town in the historical region of Swabia, that straddles the border between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The lan ...

(in the

Ostalbkreis The Ostalbkreis is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the east of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on the border to Bavaria. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Schwäbisch Hall, Ansbach, Donau-Ries, Heidenheim, Göppingen and Rems-Murr. ...

). He published his ''Ein Besuch der Galápagos-Inseln, Sammlung von Vortraegen fuer das deutsche Volk'' (“A Visit to the Galápagos Islands: A Collection of Presentations for the German People”) in 1892. His observations also include notes on the human population on the islands. He had performed a geologic survey of mainland

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

, but unfortunately his collections were lost in storage. Wolf’s observations, which became the standard interpretation of island geology, depicted the islands as exposed tops of oceanic

volcanoes A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

with a distinctly different composition from the volcanic mountains of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. As a

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

he described or co-described numerous species within the genus ''

Potentilla ''Potentilla'' is a genus containing over 300Guillén, A., et al. (2005)Reproductive biology of the Iberian species of ''Potentilla'' L. (Rosaceae).''Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid'' 1(62) 9–21. species of annual, biennial and perenni ...

''.IPNI
List of plants described and co-described by Wolf He died in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

References

External links

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Observations of Theodor Wolf
1841 births 1924 deaths People from Ostalbkreis People from the Kingdom of Württemberg Galápagos Islands German explorers 20th-century German geologists German naturalists 19th-century German botanists 19th-century German geologists {{Germany-scientist-stub