Fritz Muller: A Naturalist in Brazil
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.73 (603 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0936015926 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 376 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-07-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Ernst Haeckel acknowledged a debt to him for his own biogenetic law, 'ontogeny recapitulates philogeny.' And at his death in 1897, the obituary writer in Nature questioned 'whether any other naturalist, save Darwin himself, has given the world so large and original a mass of observations of the kind by which natural selection has been most strongly supported.' Yet today, Fritz Muller is largely ignored in books about the great nineteenth-century naturalists. He had a good university education, yet did not hesitate in Brazil to earn his living as a farmer. His best known discovery is that of Mullerian mimicry, the
Fritz Muller now has the recognition he so well deserves. He was one of the first enthusiastic supporters of natural selection. --Ernst Mayr, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology Emeritus, Harvard University . --Duncan M. West shows Muller as son, student, father, teacher, medical student, emigre, farmer, invertebrate zoologist, botanist, and as a pioneer researcher in plant growth, pollination biology, animal behavior, and mimicry. David West has given us a superb biography of the German exile in Brazil who played a little recognized role in supplying Darwin with important data for his post-1865 evolutionary writings. It is a fascinating s
CMP said great read for those who like history. The fans of 'immediate gratification' are missing a tremendous lot in life, including the understanding of how we arrived where we are now. Do not be misled by the butterfly on the cover: Fritz Muller was much more than a butterfly scholar. His research ranged from marine biology to plants. But even the non-biologists among us would know that he was the father of Mullerian mimicry, the convergent evolutionary resemblance among unrelated organisms that have some form of protection that can harm potential predators. This concept was originally based on Muller's observa
West grew up in Beirut nad graduated from Phillips Academy and Cornell University. . He joined the Biology Department of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1962 after postdoctoral research at Liverpool University; he retired in 1998. This last project introduced him to Fritz Muller's legacy and the natural history of Muller's Brazil. David A. He taught genetics and evolutionary biology and published on industrial melanism, butterfly pupal color and pupation behavior