Ferdinand Richters (1 May 1849,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

— 3 July 1914) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

. Richters was the curator of

Crustacea Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

at the

Naturmuseum Senckenberg The Naturmuseum Senckenberg () is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its kind in Germany. In 2010, almost 517,000 people visited the museum, which is owned by the Senckenberg Nature Research S ...

from 1878 until his death in 1914. He studied sciences at the Universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, receiving his doctorate in 1873 with a thesis on

phyllosoma The phyllosoma is the larval stage of spiny and slipper lobster (Palinuridae and Scyllaridae), and represents one of the most significant characteristics that unify them into the taxon Achelata. Its body is remarkably thin, flat, and transpare ...

. As a student he had as instructors,

Friedrich Wöhler Friedrich Wöhler Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HonFRSE (; 31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements be ...

Gustav Kirchhoff Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (; 12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887) was a German chemist, mathematician, physicist, and spectroscopist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy and the emission of black-body ...

and

Robert Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bu ...

. In 1873/74 he worked as an assistant in the zoological institute at Göttingen, afterwards relocating to

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, where he found employment at the Senckenberg Institute. In 1886, he was named vice-director of the '' Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung'', where three years later, he was appointed first director.Water Bear web base
biography & bibliography While on a scientific excursion to the Taunus Mountains in 1900, he developed an interest in

tardigrade Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them . In 1776, th ...

s, subsequently publishing numerous papers on the phylum. He is credited with the discovery of many tardigrade species, including a number from the genus '' Diphascon''.

Partial bibliography

* ''Die Phyllosomen : Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Loricaten'', (1873) (dissertation: Göttingen) – Phllosoma : Contribution to the historical development of loricates. * ''Beiträge zur Meeresfauna der Insel Mauritius und der Seychellen'', by

Karl August Möbius Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cac ...

(

Foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...

); Ferdinand Richters (

Decapoda The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, a ...

) and

Eduard von Martens Eduard von Martens (18 April 1831 – 14 August 1904) also known as ''Carl'' or ''Karl Eduard von Martens'', was a German zoologist. Born in Stuttgart in 1831, von Martens attended university in University of Tübingen, Tübingen, where he gradua ...

(

Mollusca Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

), (1880) – Contribution to the marine fauna of

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

and the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

. * ''Nordische Tardigraden'', in: Zool. Anz., Bd. 27, Nr. 5, p. 168-172, 2 Fig.,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

1903. * ''Arktische Tardigraden'', in: Fauna arct., Bd. 3, p. 495-508, Tab. 15–16,

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

1904. * ''Campagne arctique de 1907. tardigrades'', 1911 (published in French). * ''Marine Tardigraden'', in: Zool. Anz., Bd. 33, Nt. 2–3, p. 77-85, 4 Fig., Leipzig 1908. * ''Südamerikanische Tardigraden'', in: Zool. Anz., Bd. 38, p. 273-277, 2 Fig., Leipzig 1911. * ''Tardigrada'', in: Handwörterb. Naturw., Bd. 9, p. 1015-1020, 10 Fig., Jena 1913.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richters, Ferdinand 1849 births 1914 deaths 19th-century German zoologists German carcinologists Scientists from Hamburg University of Göttingen alumni Heidelberg University alumni 20th-century German zoologists