Julia Platt

Julia Barlow Platt (born September 14, 1857 in San Francisco , † 1935 ) was a vertebrate embryologist and politician.

She studied in Vermont and at Harvard University and received her doctorate in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1898 . She worked embryogenesis, particularly the head development, from sharks and tailed amphibians . She succeeded in demonstrating the involvement of ectodermal cells (in this case cells of the cranial neural crest ) in the cartilage formation of skull elements . This contradicted the doctrine of the cotyledon and aroused strong opposition in the research community. Other editors supported their observations, the final confirmation came from the work of Sven Hörstadius and Sven Sellman.

Julia Platt could not find permanent employment at a university and was elected Mayor of Pacific Grove in 1931 .

Selected publications

• Platt, JB (1890): The Anterior Head-Cavities of Acanthias (Preliminary Notice) , In: Zool. Number 13: 239
• Platt, JB (1892): Fibers connecting the Central Nervous System and Chorda in Amphioxus , In: Anatomischer Anzeiger 7: 282–284
• Platt, JB (1893): Ectodermic Origin of the Cartilages of the Head , In: Anat. Anz . 8: 506-509
• Platt, JB (1894): Ontogenetic differentiation of the ectoderm in Necturus , In: Archiv mikr. Anat . 43: 911-966
• Platt, JB (1894): Ontogenetic Differentiations of the Ectoderm in Necturus , In: Anat. Anz . 9: 51-56
• Platt, JB (1898): The development of the cartilaginous skull and of the branchial and hypoglossal musculature in Necturus , In: Morphol. Cent . 25: 377-464

further reading

• Zottoli, S. (1994): "Julia B. Platt (1857-1935): Pioneer comparative embryologist and neuroscientist", Brain, Behav. Evol. 43: 92-106