Johann Jakob von Kaup (10 April 1803 – 4 July 1873) was a German naturalist. A proponent of

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

, he believed in an innate mathematical order in nature and he attempted biological classifications based on the Quinarian system. Kaup is also known for having coined popular prehistoric taxa like ''

Pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

ia'', ''

Machairodus ''Machairodus'' (from , 'knife' and 'tooth') is a genus of large Machairodontinae, machairodont or ''saber-toothed cat'' that lived in Africa and Eurasia during the Middle Miocene, Middle to Late Miocene, from 12.5 million to 8.7 million years ...

'', ''

Deinotherium ''Deinotherium'' (from Ancient Greek , ''()'', meaning "terrible", and ''()'', meaning "beast"), is an extinct genus of large, elephant-like proboscideans that lived from the middle-Miocene until the end of the Early Pleistocene. Although its ap ...

'', '' Dorcatherium'', and '' Chalicotherium''. KaupClassification

Biography

He was born at

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

. After studying at

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 ...

he spent two years at

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, where his attention was specially devoted to the

amphibia Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniotic, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all tetrapods, but excluding the amniotes (tetrapods with an amniotic ...

ns and fishes. He then returned to Darmstadt as an assistant in the grand ducal museum, of which in 1840 he became inspector. In 1829 he published ''Skizze zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der europäischen Thierwelt'', in which he regarded the animal world as developed from lower to higher forms, from the amphibians through the birds to the beasts of prey; but subsequently he repudiated this work as a youthful indiscretion, and on the publication of Darwin's ''

Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

'' he declared himself against its doctrines. The extensive

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

deposits in the neighbourhood of Darmstadt gave him ample opportunities for

palaeontological Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

inquiries, and he gained considerable reputation by his ''Beiträge zur näheren Kenntniss der urweltlichen Säugethiere'' (1855–1862). He also wrote ''Classification der Säugethiere und Vögel'' (1844), and, with

Heinrich Georg Bronn Heinrich Georg Bronn (3 March 1800 – 5 July 1862) was a German geologist and paleontologist. He was the first to translate Charles Darwin's '' On the Origin of Species'' into German in 1860, although not without introducing his own interpretat ...

, ''Die Gavial-artigen Reste aus dem Lias'' (1842–1844). He was elected as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1862. He died at Darmstadt.

Mastodon fossil

A particularly important incident in the history of paleontology involves Kaup. In 1854 he bought the American mastodon found in 1799 in

Orange County, New York Orange County is a List of counties in New York, county located in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 401,310. The county seat is Goshen (village), New York, Goshen. This count ...

. This is the mastodon immortalized in

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American painter, military officer, scientist, and naturalist. In 1775, inspired by the American Revolution, Peale moved from his native Maryland to Philadelphia, where he set ...

's painting of the 1801 excavation (painting executed between 1806 and 1808). This mastodon was on display for many years in Peale's Philadelphia Museum and is currently on display in Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany This mastodon is the first complete example found in the United States, and may be only the second fossil animal ever mounted for display.

Taxa described by him

*See :Taxa named by Johann Jakob Kaup

Taxa named after him

*'' Kaupichthys'' L. P. Schultz, 1943 is a genus of

eels Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order (biology), order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 Family (biology), families, 164 genus, genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the earl ...

of the family

Chlopsidae The Chlopsidae, or false morays, are a family of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Anguilliformes, the eels. The eels in this family arefound in coral reefs worldwide. As their name suggests, they somewhat resemble moray eels in ...

The Etyfish Project
/ref> that was named after him. *'' Physiculus kaupi'' Poey, 1865 is a bathydemersal fish found in the Western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

References

Footnotes

External links

* * , volume=15, page=700 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaup, Johann Jakob 19th-century German naturalists German taxonomists 1803 births 1873 deaths German ichthyologists German ornithologists German paleontologists Scientists from Darmstadt People from the Grand Duchy of Hesse 19th-century German zoologists International members of the American Philosophical Society