Alexander Onufrijewitsch Kowalewski

Kowalewski (right) with Antoine Fortuné Marion

Alexander Onufrijewitsch Kowalewski ( Russian Александр Онуфриевич Ковалевский , * 7 November ^July / 19 November 1840 ^greg. On the Good Workowo , then Vitebsk Governorate , Russian Empire ; † 9 November ^July / 22 November 1901 ^greg. In St. Petersburg , Russian Empire ) was a Russian zoologist . He is considered the founder of comparative embryology and experimental histology in Russia.

Live and act

Kowalewski studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg and received his doctorate from the University of Saint Petersburg . He was a student of Ernst Haeckel . In 1867 he researched together with Ilya Ilyich Metschnikow in Naples. In 1868/69 he became professor in Kazan , from 1869 in Kiev , from 1874 in Odessa and from 1891 at the Russian Academy of Sciences and professor at the University of Saint Petersburg (1891-1893).

He showed that all animals go through a gastrulation stage as embryos , which at the time supported Darwin's theory of evolution , which he significantly promoted in Russia. Before that, gastrulation had been studied mainly in vertebrates. In this context, Haeckel emphasizes Kowalewski's discovery in 1866 that the development of gastrulation in primitive vertebrates such as the lancet fish is similar to that in tunicates ( sea squirts ). He recognized the importance of the notochord for the ancestral history and suggested the combination of animals with notochord for chordating .

In 1890 he was accepted as a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences ; since December 1883 he was a corresponding member of the academy. In 1895 he was elected to the Académie des Sciences in Paris and in 1896 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Kowalewski came from a noble Polish family, he was the son of Onufri Ossipowitsch and Polina Petrovna Kowalewski. He is the brother of the paleontologist Vladimir Onufrijewitsch Kowalewski .

Fonts

Development history of Amphioxus lanceolatus , 1867
Embryological studies on worms and arthropods, 1871

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Alexander Kowalewski, in: Session reports of the mathematical and natural science class of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich. Munich: Publishing House of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 1903. P. 288.
^ Bernardino Fantini: Ilya Illich Metschnikow. In: Wolfgang U. Eckart , Christoph Gradmann (Hrsg.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the present. 3. Edition. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg / Berlin / New York 2006, p. 226 f. Medical glossary 2006 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
↑ Ernst Haeckel: Die Weltträthsel , Chapter 4
^ Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724: Kowalewski, Alexander Onufrijewitsch. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed January 6, 2020 (Russian).
^ List of members since 1666: letter K. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 6, 2020 (French).

personal data
SURNAME	Kowalewski, Alexander Onufrijewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ковалевский, Александр Онуфриевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Russian zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH	November 19, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vārkava near Daugavpils
DATE OF DEATH	November 22, 1901
Place of death	St. Petersburg

[1] Alexander Kowalewski, in: Session reports of the mathematical and natural science class of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich. Munich: Publishing House of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 1903. P. 288.

[ÄL-2] Bernardino Fantini: Ilya Illich Metschnikow. In: Wolfgang U. Eckart , Christoph Gradmann (Hrsg.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the present. 3. Edition. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg / Berlin / New York 2006, p. 226 f. Medical glossary 2006 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .

[3] Ernst Haeckel: Die Weltträthsel , Chapter 4

[4] Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724: Kowalewski, Alexander Onufrijewitsch. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed January 6, 2020 (Russian).

[5] List of members since 1666: letter K. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 6, 2020 (French).