(Karl) Ludwig Rütimeyer (26 February 1825 in

Biglen Biglen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bern-Mittelland (administrative district), Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. History Biglen is fir ...

Canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...

– 25 November 1895 in Basel) was a Swiss

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal 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 scien ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

, who is considered one of the fathers of

zooarchaeology Zooarchaeology or archaeozoology merges the disciplines of zoology and archaeology, focusing on the analysis of animal remains within archaeological sites. This field, managed by specialists known as zooarchaeologists or faunal analysts, examines ...

Career

Rütimeyer studied at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

. 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 Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

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 public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

. An area of specialization was the extinct

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. 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 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 Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

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 natural history, naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, ...

'' and defended Darwin's ideas. However,

Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; ; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, natural history, naturalist, eugenics, eugenicist, Philosophy, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biology, marine biologist and artist ...

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 ...

. He was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

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