Hugo Merton (18 November 1879 in

Frankfurt am Main 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 ...

– 23 March 1940 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

) was a German

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 ...

. He studied sciences at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

. From October 1907 to August 1908, with

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

Jean Roux Jean Roux (March 1876, Geneva – 1 December 1939) was a Swiss herpetologist. He studied at the University of Geneva, completing his doctoral thesis in 1899. His early research involved studies of protozoa, and following post-doctoral work in ...

, he conducted scientific investigations in the Aru and

Kei Islands The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku. The Moluccas have been known as the Spice Islands due to regionally specific plants such ...

.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011)
The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Merton", p. 177). In 1913 he obtained his habilitation at Heidelberg with a dissertation on the flatworm genus '' Temnocephala''.Google Search
(publications). Because of the 1935

Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of th ...

imposed by the Nazis, he was forced to relinquish his position as deputy director at the

Senckenberg Museum The Naturmuseum Senckenberg is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its type in Germany. The museum contains a large and diverse collection of birds with 90,000 bird skins, 5,050 egg sets, 17,0 ...

in Frankfurt as well as his professorship at the University of Heidelberg.Obituary of Hugo Merton
Nature 145, 924-925 (15 June 1940) , doi:10.1038/145924a0. In 1937, by way of an invitation from Professor F. A. E. Crew, he went to the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, where he spent time working in the institute of animal

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

. Upon this return to Germany in 1938, he was arrested and imprisoned in the concentration camp at Dachau. During the following year, he was deported to Scotland, where he resumed his work at the university. Due to deteriorated health, he died soon afterwards in March 1940.Biographical Petymol.m.html - TMBL
Etymology of Marine Organism Names. M. Organisms with the specific epithet of ''mertoni'' are named in his honor, an example being the

sea snake Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, wher ...

species ''Parahydrophis mertoni''. In 1911,

Max Carl Wilhelm Weber Max Carl Wilhelm Weber van Bosse or Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (5 December 1852, in Bonn – 7 February 1937, in Eerbeek) was a German-Dutch zoologist and biogeographer. Weber studied at the University of Bonn, then at the Humboldt University in Be ...

named the fish species ''Pseudomugil gertrudae'' after Merton's wife, Gertrude.

Selected writings

* ''Forschungsreise in den südöstlichen Molukken'', 1910 - Expedition to the southeastern

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 ...

. * ''Ergebnisse einer Zoologischen Forschungsreise in den Südöstlichen Molukken (Aru- und Kei-Inseln)'', 1910 - Results of a zoological expedition to the southeastern Moluccas (Aru and Kei Islands). * ''Die Fische der Aru- und Kei-Inseln: ein Beitrag zur Zoogeographie dieser Inseln'', 1911 - Fish of the Aru and Kei Islands. * ''Cephalopoden der Aru-und Kei-Inseln'', 1913 -

Cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

s of the Aru and Kei Islands. * ''Beiträge Zur Anatomie und Histology von Temnocephala'', (Habilitationsschrift) 1913 - Contribution to the anatomy and histology of '' Temnocephala''. * "Studies on Reproduction in the Albino Mouse", Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1939.

References

External links

Nationaal Herbarium Nederland
(Itinerary in the Aru & Kai Islands). {{DEFAULTSORT:Merton, Hugo 1879 births 1940 deaths Scientists from Frankfurt Heidelberg University alumni Academic staff of Heidelberg University 20th-century German zoologists Dachau concentration camp survivors People deported from Germany German emigrants to the United Kingdom