Wilhelm Moritz Keferstein (7 June 1833,

Winsen (Luhe) Winsen (Luhe) () is the capital of the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the small river Luhe, near its confluence with the Elbe, approx. 25 km southeast of Hamburg, and 20 km northwest of Lüneburg. Hi ...

– 25 January 1870) was a German

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. He described a number of

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s and

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s for the first time. He originally studied

hydraulic engineering Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the move ...

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, later becoming a lecturer and professor of

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. With zoologist Ernst Ehlers (1835-1925), he wrote ''Zoologische Beiträge gesammelt im Winter 1859/60 in Neapel und Messina...'' in 1861. With Karl Wilhelm von Kupffer (1829-1902) he was co-author of a study on the electric organs of '' Gymnotus'' and ''

Mormyrus ''Mormyrus'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Mormyridae. They are Weakly electric fish, weakly electric, enabling them to Animal navigation, navigate, to electrolocation, find their prey, and to electrocommunication, communicate with ...

'' that was published in Henle and Pfeufer's ''Zeitschrift für rationelle Medicin'' (Journal of rational medicine). He also made important contributions to

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 ...

's ''Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs'' (Classes and Orders of the Animal Kingdom). Keferstein's tree frog is named after him (a species he described in 1868), as is a genus of

polychaetes Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are m ...

, ''Kefersteinia'' (family

Hesionidae Hesionidae are a family of phyllodocid bristle worms (class Polychaeta). They are (like almost all polychaetes) marine organisms. Most are found on the continental shelf; '' Hesiocaeca methanicola'' is found on methane ice, where it feeds on ...

References

External links

translated biography @

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

* 1833 births 1870 deaths 19th-century German zoologists German herpetologists Academic staff of the University of Göttingen People from Harburg (district) Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina {{Germany-zoologist-stub

See also

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