Alexander Kovalevsky

Alexander Onufrijewitsch Kowalewski, Russian Александр Онуфриевич Ковалевский, Latvian Aleksandrs Kovaļevskis, (born 7 Novemberjul / November 19 1840greg in Vārkava in Daugavpils, Latvia today, .. .. † 9 Novemberjul / November 22 1901greg in Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian zoologist. He is considered the founder of comparative embryology and experimental histology in Russia.

Kowalewski studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg and received his doctorate at the University of Saint Petersburg. He was a student of Ernst Haeckel. Kowalewski was 1868/69 Professor in Kazan, 1869 in Kiev, Odessa and from 1874 to 1891 at the Russian Academy of Sciences and professor at the University of St. Petersburg ( 1891-1893 ).

He showed that all animals go when embryos by a Gastrulations stage, which at the time supported the Darwinian theory of evolution, which he promoted much in Russia. Prior to gastrulation had been mainly studied in vertebrates. Haeckel emphasizes in this context the discovery Kowalewski of 1866 that the Gastrulations development in primitive vertebrates such as the lancelet similar runs as tunicates ( sea squirts ). He recognized the importance of the notochord for ordinary story and suggested the grouping of animals with notochord to chordates before.

In 1890, he was inducted into the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Kowalewski was born into a noble Polish family, he was the son of Onufri Ossipowitsch and Paulina Petrovna Kowalewski. He is the brother of paleontologist Vladimir Kovalevsky Onufrijewitsch.

Writings

• Evolution of amphioxus lanceolatus, 1867
• Embryological studies in worms and arthropods, 1871