Emil Selenka, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Emil Selenka

German zoologist

Date of Birth: 27-Feb-1842

Place of Birth: Brunswick, Lower Saxony, Germany

Date of Death: 20-Feb-1902

Profession: zoologist, biologist, university teacher, anatomist, malacologist

Nationality: Kingdom of the Netherlands

Zodiac Sign: Pisces


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About Emil Selenka

  • Emil Selenka (27 February, 1842, Braunschweig – 20 February, 1902, Munich) was a German zoologist.
  • He is known for his research on invertebrates and apes and the scientific expeditions he organized to Southeast Asia and South America. Selenka was the son of bookbinder Johannes Selenka (1801–1871).
  • He studied natural history at the University of Göttingen, and following a graduate dissertation on Holothuroidea, he remained in Göttingen as an assistant to Wilhelm Moritz Keferstein (1833-1870).
  • His research was in this period mainly on the anatomy, taxonomy and embryology of marine invertebrates, especially organisms from the phylum Echinodermata.
  • In 1868 he became a professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Leiden, followed by a professorship at the University of Erlangen in 1874.
  • In 1895 he was given an honorary professorship at the University of Munich.
  • He was co-founder of the journal Biologisches Zentralblatt. His later research was on mammals.
  • He studied the early development of the embryo and the development of the germ layer in mammals, and did comparative anatomic research on apes, especially gibbons and orangutans.
  • He found evidence that the lateral distribution of orangutan races was caused by geographic isolation (a process called allopatric speciation).
  • Selenka also examined the evolution of marsupials and their morphologic relation with reptiles.
  • One problem he was interested in, was the evolutionary relation between Australian and South American marsupials. In order to collect material, Selenka organized expeditions to tropical countries.
  • In 1877 he undertook an expedition to Brasil.
  • From 1892 he led an expedition that lasted two years to Southeast Asia, it visited Ceylon, the Dutch East Indies, Japan, China and Australia.
  • Among the participants was his second wife, the zoologist and feminist Margarethe Selenka (1860-1922), with whom he was married in 1893.
  • When Selenka became severely ill during his stay in the Dutch East Indies and had to return to Germany, his wife continued exploring the jungles of Borneo by herself.
  • The couple wrote a report of their journeys together, titled "Sonnige Welten- Ostasiatische Reiseskizzen".
  • Other publications by Emil Selenka are: Beiträge zur Anatomie und Systematik der Holothurien, (1867). Zoologische Studien, (1878). Studien ĂĽber Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere, (12 volumes, 1883–1913, with Ambrosius Hubrecht). "Report on the Gephyrea, collected by H.M.S.
  • Challenger during the years 1873-1876"; (published in English, 1885). Zoologisches Taschenbuch fĂĽr Studierende zum Gebrauch bei Vorlesungen und praktischen Ăśbungen zusammengestellt, (1897).Between 1873 and 1874 and again from 1889 Selenka was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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