Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Heer, Oswald (Switzerland 1809-1883)
paleontology, botany, entomology
was one of the most eminent naturalists of his time. From the mid-1830s
he was connected with the University of Zurich and was also founder
and Director of the Botanical Gardens in Zurich. His researches centered
on paleobotany, especially of Tertiary formations in glacial and periglacial
environments, but he also gave his attention to entomology (of both
living and fossil forms), and to phytogeography. Several of his books
became important classics in their subjects. One of the important
results of Heer's studies was a new awareness that the climatic regimes
at high latitudes had not always been as dominated by cold temperatures
as they are now, and he was led to postulate that the Arctic had been
an important center of radiation for present day forms and their ancestors.
Heer was a friendly and well-liked man, and his industry, despite
health problems, is hinted at by the fact that he described over sixteen
hundred new species in his three major paleobotanical works alone.
--born in Niederutzwyl, St. Gallen, Switzerland, on
31 August 1809.
--1828: enters University of Halle to study
theology, but switches to natural sciences
--1834: hired as privatdozent in botany at the
University of Zurich; founds and is made director of the Botanical Gardens
--1835: advanced to associate professor at Zurich
--1840: begins his studies in paleobotany
--1845: founds and is made president of Zurich's
society of agriculture and horticulture
--1850-1851: spends time in Madeira to recover
--1852-1883: professor of biology and entomology
--1855: begins teaching taxonomic botany at
the Technische Hochschule in Zurich
--1855-1859: publishes his Flora tertiaria
Helvetiae in three volumes
--1868-1883: publishes his Flora
fossilis arctica in seven volumes
--1871: suffers a tuberculosis relapse
--1873: receives the Wollaston Medal from the
Geological Society of London
--1876: publishes his Flora fossilis Helvetiae
--1883: publishes his Über die
nivale Flora der Schweiz
--dies at Zurich, Switzerland, on 27 September
--Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. 6 (1972).
--Taxonomic Literature, Vol. 2 (1979).
--Proceedings of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 19
(May 1883 - May 1884): 556-559.
--American Journal of Science, Ser. 3, Vol. 28 (1884): 61-67.
Vol. 2 (1883): 583-586.
Copyright 2005 by Charles H. Smith. All rights
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