Otto Friedrich Müller, also known as Otto Friedrich Mueller (2 November 1730 – 26 December 1784) was a Danish

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

scientific illustrator Technical illustration is illustration meant to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be components of technical drawings or diagrams. Technical illustrations in general aim "to generate expressive im ...

Biography

Müller was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. He was educated for the church, became tutor to a young nobleman, and after several years' travel with him, settled in Copenhagen in 1767, and married a lady of wealth. His first important works, ''Fauna Insectorum Friedrichsdaliana'' (Leipzig, 1764), and ''Flora Friedrichsdaliana'' (Strasbourg, 1767), giving accounts of the insects and

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

of the estate of

Frederiksdal Narsarmijit, formerly Narsaq Kujalleq and Frederiksdal (Anglicised: Frederiksthal), is a list of cities in Greenland, settlement in southern Greenland. It is located in the Kujalleq municipalities of Greenland, municipality near Cape Thorvaldsen. ...

, near Copenhagen, recommended him to

Frederick V of Denmark Frederick V (Danish language, Danish and Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Frederik V''; 31 March 1723 – 14 January 1766) was King of Denmark–Norway, Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein from 6 August 1746 until his death in 1766. ...

, by whom he was employed to continue the ''

Flora Danica ''Flora Danica'' is a comprehensive atlas of botany from the Age of Enlightenment, containing folio-sized pictures of all the wild plants native to Denmark, in the period from 1761 to 1883. History ''Flora Danica'' was proposed by G. C. Oed ...

'' a comprehensive atlas of the

of Denmark. Müller added two volumes to the three published by

Georg Christian Oeder Georg Christian Edler von Oldenburg Oeder (3 February 172828 January 1791) was a German- Danish botanist, medical doctor, economist and social reformer. His name is particularly associated with the initiation of the plate work ''Flora Danica''. ...

since 1761. The study of invertebrates began to occupy his attention almost exclusively, and in 1771 he produced a work in German on “Certain Worms inhabiting Fresh and Salt Water,” which described many new species of those annulose animals called by

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

aphroditae and

nereides In Greek mythology, the Nereids or Nereides ( ; ; , also Νημερτές) are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of the 'Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, sisters to their brother Nerites. They often ...

, and gave much additional information respecting their habits. He discovered the first diatom ever seen, the colonial

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's B ...

''Bacillaria paradoxa'', though he thought it was an animal because of its movement. In his ''Vermium Terrestrium et Fluviatilium, seu Animalium Infusoriorum, Helminthecorum, et Testaceorum non Marinorum, succincta Historia'' (2 vols. in 4to, Copenhagen and Leipzig, 1773–74), he arranged the

Infusoria Infusoria is a word used to describe various freshwater microorganisms, including ciliates, copepods, Euglena, euglenoids, planktonic crustaceans, protozoa, unicellular algae and small invertebrates. Some authors (e.g., Otto Bütschli, Bütschli) ...

for the first time into

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

and

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. His ''Hydrachnæ in Aquis Daniæ Palustribus detectæ et descriptæ'' (Leipzig, 1781), and ''Entomostraca'' (1785), describe many species of microorganisms previously unknown, amongst other

dinoflagellates The Dinoflagellates (), also called Dinophytes, are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered protists. Dinoflagellates are mostly marine plankton, but they are also commo ...

. To these was added an illustrated work on the infusoria, published in 1786. These three works, according to the contemporary dean of naturalists

Baron Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

, give the author “a place in the first rank of those naturalists who have enriched science with original observations.” His ''Zoologiae Danicae Prodromus'' (1776) was the first survey of the fauna of the combined kingdoms of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and Denmark, and classified over three thousand local species. He was one of the first to study microorganisms and established the classification of several groups of animals in addition to the infusoria, including Hydrachnellae and

Entomostraca Entomostraca is a historical subclass of crustaceans, no longer in technical use. It was originally considered one of the two major lineages of crustaceans (the other being the class Malacostraca), combining all other classes—Branchiopoda, Cep ...

, all unknown to

. He was a member of the Academia Caesarea Leopoldina, a foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

(elected in 1769), the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

, Paris, and the

Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science The Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science, (Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, in German) (GNF) is a scientific society, one of the most important such societies of the late 18th century. After the Danziger Naturforschenden Ges ...

. He had a lasting impact on zoological studies across Europe.

Works

*''Fauna Insectorum Fridrichsdaliana''. Lipsiae: Hafniae et Gleditsch xxiv 96 pp. (1764). *''Vermium terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum, et testaecorum, non marinorum, succincta historia. Volumen alterum''. pp. I-XXVI 1-36 1–214, -10 Havniæ openhagenet Lipsiæ eipzig Heineck and Faber

(1773-1774). *''Zoologiae Danicae Prodromus, seu Animalium Daniae et Norvegiae Indigenarum characteres, nomina, et synonyma imprimis popularium''.... Copenhagen, Hallager for the author

(1776).
"... the first manual on this topic (Danish and Norwegian Zoology) and was for many years the most comprehensive. It was planned as the beginning of a large illustrated fauna, but only one volume appeared before Müller's death; the following volumes, including those prepared by

Søren Abildgaard Søren Pedersen Abildgaard (18 February 1718 – 2 July 1791) was a Denmark, Danish natural history, naturalist, writer and illustrator. He was born in Flekkefjord in Norway and died in Copenhagen in Denmark. Abildgaard traveled throughout Denma ...

and Martin Heinrich Rathke, never reached the standard of the ''Flora Danica'' begun by

"''Dictionary of Scientific Biography''. 16 vols. New York. 1981. * ''Animalcula infusoria fluviatilia et marina, quae detexit, systematice descripsit et ad vivum delineari curavit''. Havniae openhagenet Lipsiae eipzig Mölleri

(1786). * ''Entomostraca seu Insecta Testacea, quae in aquis Daniae et Norvegiae reperit, descripsit et iconibus illustravit''. 135 pp.

(1785).

Notes

References

* Spärck, R.(1932) “Otto Friedrich Müller” in: Meisen, V. ''Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages''. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, pp. 60–64. * *

External links

Müller's works at GDZ Göttigen
(Search as Mueller)

��Gastropod species named after Otto Müller: Helix Aspersa Müller. Pictures of snail and of its anatomy. {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Otto Friedrich Danish naturalists 18th-century Danish zoologists 1730 births 1784 deaths Danish carcinologists Danish ornithologists Danish lepidopterists Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Danish scientific illustrators 18th-century Danish illustrators Scientists from Copenhagen

Biography

Works

See also

Notes

References

External links