Max Fürbringer

Max Carl Anton Fürbringer ( born January 30, 1846 in Wittenberg, † March 6, 1920 in Heidelberg ) was a German anatomist and ornithologist. He was the brother of physician Paul Fürbringer ( 1849-1930 ).

Life

Max Carl Anton Fürbringer (b. Gumprecht ) born in Wittenberg, the son of the former county court director Charles and Hermine Fürbringer on 30 January 1846. In Jena Fürbringer took a study of the natural sciences, and he continued in Berlin and received his doctorate there in 1869 with a zoological work. He was still animated the study of medicine through an assistant position with Carl Englemann in Jena. Him he also followed in 1873, when this perceived a call to Heidelberg in 1877 and his habilitation of Anatomy, in 1879 appointed extraordinary professor. Also in 1873 he was appointed as a full professor in Amsterdam, received in 1888 the chair of anatomy at the University of Jena in 1901 and Director of the Anatomical Institute of the University of Heidelberg. In 1912 he retired and died on March 6, 1920 in Heidelberg.

Under the influence of Carl Gegenbaur Fürbringer be dealt with developmental work ( formation of the kidneys). As he was approaching his task, he was most thoroughly equipped with all the skills that were necessary for the evaluation of the previous attempts at classification of birds. He was a comparative anatomist, who had sharpened his judgment on rich experiences and conducted a lot of investigations painstakingly, especially those that seemed necessary to clarify genealogical questions.

No one before him, and you may say nobody after him has to be used for the classification of characteristics as completely assembled and their phylogenetic significance as carefully balanced as he is, the relationships between form and function always remained aware. The pitfalls that. , The " isomorphism ", ie, the secondary caused by the same functional effect of morphological similarities which confront the systematic, it is therefore avoided carefully He was also familiar with the phenomenon that is now known as " allometric growth."

His monumental masterpiece " Studies on the morphology and systematics of birds " is based on thorough comparative studies of the chest, shoulder and wing region around the bird class and resulted in consideration of paleontological and animal geographical facts to new insights into the evolutionary history of birds and to set up one in the Broad still valid classification of birds. Among other Fürbringer able to prove that the " flat chest Birds" ( ratites, such as ostriches ) have become secondarily flightless in a quite heterogeneous complex.

His system is, fine structured by introduction of four higher categories ( Ordo, Subordo, gen Familia ) than its predecessor, with the category of " gentes " corresponds to the systems of other authors. From increasingly hypothetical character are its bundling of the gentes to 24 submissions and these to 7 trims. From Fürbringers numerous other works, here it should be emphasized only his monograph on the spino - occipital nerves. Fürbringer a chief representative of the school Against Baur, to whom he dedicated a detailed biography (1903 ).

Works

• " The bones and muscles of the limbs at the snake-like dinosaurs " 1870
• " Studies on the morphology and systematics of birds " (2 volumes) 1888
• " For the development of the amphibian kidney" 1877
• "On the occipital nerve d Selachians and Holocephalen and their comparative morphology " in the Festschrift for Carl Gegenbaur III, 1897, pp. 351-768
• "On the systematics and genealogy of Reptiles" Post 1900
• " On the question of the origin of mammals " in 1904
• " The spino - occipital nerves"
• "On the comparative anatomy of the shoulder muscles and chest shoulder apparatus " ( five volumes )
• " Morphological issues "