Johann Wilhelm Haacke (23 August 1855 – 6 December 1912) was a German zoologist born in

Clenze Clenze is a municipality in the district Lüchow-Dannenberg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 km northwest of Salzwedel, and 25 km east of Uelzen. The Polabian name of Clenze is ''Klǫcka'' (spelled ''Cloontzka' ...

, Lower Saxony, who served as Director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide from 1882 to 1884.

Career

He studied zoology at the University of Jena, earning his doctorate in 1878. Afterwards he worked as an assistant of

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 ...

in Jena and at the University of Kiel. In 1881 he emigrated to New Zealand, working at the museums in Dunedin, under Professor Parker, and Christchurch under Professor von Haast. The following year he moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, where he replaced

F. G. Waterhouse Frederick George Waterhouse (25 August 1815 – 7 September 1898) was an English naturalist, zoologist and entomologist who made significant contributions to the study of the natural history of Australia. Waterhouse was born near London, a s ...

as Director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, and was a founding member of the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia. In August 1884 he laid to rest an old mystery about echidnas, proving they are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

not viviparous, with a specimen sent to the Museum by a naturalist on Kangaroo Island. His work and the liberality with which he was treated attracted some criticism, as did his bombastic self-promotion. He resigned his position in October 1884, after a series of disputes with the Museum's management but did not leave the colony. He served as zoologist with the 1885 Geographical Society of Australasia's expedition to the Fly River, Papua New Guinea. In June 1886 he announced his imminent departure for Europe, and was invited by a large deputation of German settlers to represent them at an Allgemeiner Deutscher Kongress to be held in Berlin that September but declined, and left South Australia around July 1886 without fanfare. From 1888 to 1893 he was director of the zoo in Frankfurt-am-Main, and afterwards was a lecturer at Darmstadt University of Technology (until 1897). Later, he worked as a private scholar and grammar school teacher.Deutsche Biographie
/ref> He died in Lüneburg on December 6, 1912. Haacke is remembered for research of

oviparity Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and m ...

in monotremes, and studies involving the morphology of jellyfish and corals. In 1893 he coined the evolutionary term " orthogenesis". He also conducted investigations in the field of

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

Evolutionary views

Haacke studied under

. He later turned against Haeckel for holding

Darwinist Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations tha ...

views. He was also a critic of August Weismann. He experimented with

mice A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

and proposed a system of heredity similar to Gregor Mendel but differed in results. Haacke was a neo-Lamarckian and proponent of the inheritance of acquired characters.Levit, Georgy S; Olsson, Lennart. (2007). ''Evolution on Rails Mechanisms and Levels of Orthogenesis''. In Volker Wissemann. ''Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology 11/2006''. Universitätsverlag Göttingen. pp. 100-104. Haacke believed that cells consist of individuals called ''gemmaria'' that operate as hereditary units. These consist of even smaller units known as '' gemmae''. He believed these units to explain neo-Lamarckian inheritance. He was a proponent of orthogenesis. He held that from his theory of ''epimorphism'' evolution is a directed process tending towards perfection.

Selected writings

He made contributions to '' Brehms Tierleben'', a popular zoological compendium published in several editions, and with illustrator

Wilhelm Kuhnert Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert (September 18, 1865 – February 11, 1926) was a German painter, author and illustrator, who specialized in animal images. After illustrating the books of Alfred Brehm, he travelled to German East Africa to observe a ...

published ''Das Tierleben der Erde''. Other noteworthy written efforts include: * ''Die Schöpfung der Tierwelt'' (1893) * ''Gestaltung und Vererbung. Eine Entwickelungsmechanik der Organismen'' (1893) * ''Die Schöpfung of Menschen und seiner Ideal. Ein Versuch zur Versöhnung zwischen Religion und Wissenschaft'' (1895) * ''Aus der Schöpfungswerkstatt'' (1897) * ''Grundriss der Entwickelungsmechanik'' (1897)

Taxon named in his honor

The Wavy grubfish ''

Parapercis haackei ''Parapercis haackei'', the wavy grubfish, is a species of fish in the sandperch family, Pinguipedidae. It is found in the eastern Indian Ocean around southern Western Australia and South Australia. Description ''Parapercis haackei'' reaches ...

'' is named in his honor.

Career

Evolutionary views

Selected writings

Taxon named in his honor

References

Further reading