Christian Heinrich Pander

Christian Heinrich Pander
Christian Heinrich Pander
Born24 July [O.S. 13] 1794
Riga, Livonia Governorate, Russian Empire
Died22 September [O.S. 10] 1865 (aged 71)
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Scientific career
FieldsBiology, embryology, paleontology
Author abbrev. (botany)Pander

Christian Heinrich von Pander (Russian: Христиан Иванович Пандер, romanized: Khristian Ivanovich Pander; 24 July [O.S. 13 July] 1794 – 22 September [O.S. 10 September] 1865), was a Russian biologist and embryologist of Baltic German origin. He was among the first to identify distinct germ layers involved in the development of the embryo, coining the term "blastoderm". He has been considered as a "father of embryology" but he also worked on comparative anatomy, studying the skeletons of vertebrates, as well as fossils and geology.

Biography

Pander was born in Riga of prosperous German parents. His father Johann Martin was a banker married to Ursula. Pander had three brothers and four sisters. He went to a German gymnasium in Riga and went to the University of Dorpat in 1812, where he was influenced by Karl Friedrich Burdach. He then went to Berlin in 1814, Göttingen in 1816 and in 1817 he received his medical degree from the University of Würzburg, studying the development of chick embryos. From 1818 to 1829 he travelled to European museums, examining specimens, particularly of animal skeletons along with Eduard d’Alton (1772-1840). He spent several years (1827–1842), performing scientific research from his estate in Carnikava (German: Zarnikau)[1] on the banks of the Gauja River near Riga. In 1820 he worked as an adjunct in zoology at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and took part in a scientific expedition to Bokhara as a naturalist. In 1826 he became a member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. From 1833 he lived on his family estate at Zarnikau. Pander was supported by his father until 1842 when his father died leaving him without an inheritance. After this Pander had to take up work, and was employed by the department of mining in St. Petersburg. It was during this time that he examined fossils, including those of conodonts which he found in his own estate.[2][3][4]

Pander married Amalie von Scherer in 1825, and they had three sons and four daughters.[3]

Biology

Pander worked under Ignaz Döllinger and studied the chick embryo and discovered the germ layers (i.e., three distinct regions of the embryo that give rise to the specific organ system). His dissertation titled Historia Metamorphoseos Quam Ovum Incubatum Prioribus Quinque Diebus Subit included illustrations made by Eduard d’Alton. Because of these findings, he is considered by many to be the "founder of embryology". His work in embryology was continued by Karl Ernst von Baer (1792–1876), who expanded Pander's concept of germ layers to include all vertebrates.[5][6] In 1824 he suggested that there was a continuous change of metamorphism in plants and animals which would be cited by Darwin as a fore-runner of his own ideas.[7][8]

Pander performed important studies in the field of paleontology, being known for his extensive research on fossils found in the Devonian and Silurian geological strata of the Baltic regions.[9][10] His study of trilobites from this age led to the adjective 'Panderian', first used by the Canadian palaeontologist, Elkanah Billings.[11] Pander is credited as the first scientist to describe primitive creatures known as conodonts.[12][13]

Today the Pander Society is an international association of palaeontologists and stratigraphers with a common interest in the study of conodonts.[14]

During travels in Turkestan in 1923 he contracted malaria and suffered subsequently. He died in Saint Petersburg following a surgery for kidney stones. His grave in the Smolenska Lutheran Cemetery is lost.

Eponyms

Pander is remembered in Pander's islands or blood islands

Selected writings

See also

References

  1. ^ Godwin-Austen, H. (1866). "On the Carboniferous Rocks of the Valley of Kashmere: with Notes on the Brachiopoda collected by Capt. Godwin-Austen in Thibet and Kashmere, by T. Davidson, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 22 (1–2): i–639 [37]. Bibcode:1866QJGS...22...29G. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1866.022.01-02.08. S2CID 129858073.
  2. ^ Wessel, Gary M. (2010). "Christian Heinrich Pander (1794-1865)". Molecular Reproduction and Development. 77 (9): n/a–n/a. doi:10.1002/mrd.21236.
  3. ^ a b Sweet, Walter C.; Cooper, Barry J. (2008-12-01). "C. H. Pander's introduction to conodonts, 1856". Episodes. 31 (4): 429–432. doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2008/v31i4/009. ISSN 0705-3797.
  4. ^ Wessel, Gary M. (2010). "Christian Heinrich Pander (1794-1865)". Molecular Reproduction and Development. 77 (9): n/a–n/a. doi:10.1002/mrd.21236.
  5. ^ Wellmann, Janina (2015). "Folding into being: early embryology and the epistemology of rhythm". History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences. 37 (1): 17–33. doi:10.1007/s40656-014-0052-8. ISSN 0391-9714.
  6. ^ Brauckmann, Sabine (2011). "Axes, planes and tubes, or the geometry of embryogenesis". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 42 (4): 381–390. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.07.009.
  7. ^ Schmitt, Stephane (2005). "From eggs to fossils: epigenesis and transformation of species in Pander's biology". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 49 (1): 1–8. doi:10.1387/ijdb.041908ss. ISSN 0214-6282.
  8. ^ Riha, Ortrun; Schmuck, Thomas (2012). "Of Bones and Beasts: Christian Heinrich von Pander (1794–1865) on Transformation of Species" (PDF). Studies in the history of biology. 4 (2): 23–38.
  9. ^ Cooke, Mordecai Cubitt; Taylor, John Eller (1877). "Hardwicke's Science-gossip: An Illustrated Medium of Interchange and Gossip for Students and Lovers of Nature".
  10. ^ Robertson, George M. (1939). "The Status of Cephalaspis Schrenckii Pander from the Upper Silurian of Oesel". The Journal of Geology. 47 (6): 649–657. Bibcode:1939JG.....47..649R. doi:10.1086/624818. JSTOR 30056305.
  11. ^ Woodward, Henry (1870). "Reports and Proceedings". Geological Magazine.
  12. ^ Devonian Life and Evolution H.C. Pander and strange Conodonts
  13. ^ GEOS394 Conodont Lecture
  14. ^ "The Pander Society". Archived from the original on 2011-05-30. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  15. ^ OCLC Classify (publications)

Sources

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