Karl Ernst von Baer, Cell Biology, Biographies

Related Category: Cell Biology, Biographies

Karl Ernst von Baer 1792–1876, Estonian biologist. He was a professor at WUrzburg and KOnigsberg and from 1834 at St. Petersburg. Considered a founder of modern embryology, he discovered the notochord as well as the mammalian ovum. In his History of the Development of Animals (2 vol., 1828–37) he presented the theory of embryonic germ layers (the development of body tissues and organs from definite layers of cells formed in the early embryonic stages) and showed that the development of the embryo in different animals is similar in its early stages. He made these ideas a basis for a general evolutionary theory.

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