Vladimir Onufrijewitsch Kovalevsky

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Soviet postage stamp with a portrait of Kovalevsky (1952)

Vladimir Kovalevsky ( Russian Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский even Woldemar Kowalevsky , August 2 . Jul / 14. August  1842 greg. In Schustjanka, county Daugavpils , Vitebsk , today Vārkava , Latvia , † April 16 jul. / 28. April  1883 greg. in Moscow ) was a Russian paleontologist of Polish descent, known for his work on the lineage of horses .

Life

Kowalewski came from a noble Polish family. He was the son of Onufri Ossipowitsch and Polina Petrovna Kowalewski and the brother of the zoologist (embryology) Alexander Onufrijewitsch Kowalewski (1840-1901), a student of Ernst Haeckel , who introduced Darwin's theory of evolution in Russia. Kowalewski first studied law in London and St. Petersburg and graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1861. After completing his studies, he worked as a lawyer (titular advisor). From 1863 he turned increasingly under the influence of his brother the geology , anatomy and paleontology to, but finally only after the death of his father in 1867. Kowalewski had since 1868 with the mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya married, the marriage was originally only pro forma closed to enable his wife to study abroad. After their marriage, however, both often traveled together through Europe, where Kowalewski studied fossils in the paleontological collections of the universities of Heidelberg , Jena , Munich and in Paris in 1870/71 . In 1872 he received his doctorate from the University of Jena with a thesis on the evolution of horses ( on the Anchitherium aurelianese Cuv. And the paleontological history of the horse ). Even after his doctorate, the development of the ungulate family tree remained his main area of ​​work. He found evidence for the theory of evolution in the fossils . He corresponded with Charles Darwin , whom he knew from London. In 1873 he and his wife returned to Saint Petersburg from abroad, where he became curator of the Zoological Cabinet. From 1876 he was the editor of a newspaper ( Novoje wremja ), for which his wife also wrote. A year later they left the newspaper for political reasons and from 1878 onwards they became involved in higher education for women. In the same year the daughter Fufa was born. The couple also speculated in real estate, but went bankrupt and moved to Moscow. From 1881 Kowalewski taught at Lomonossow University in Moscow , while his wife and daughter went to Berlin to study with Karl Weierstrass and terminated their marriage. In 1882 he traveled to the USA to study fossils .

Kowalewski translated works by Darwin, Louis Agassiz , Charles Lyell (Principles of Geology) and other scientific classics such as Brehm's Tierleben and German classical literature into Russian.

Kowalewski died by suicide after an oil company, whose shares he had speculated in, went bankrupt.

Fonts

  • Monograph of the genus Anthracotherium Cuv. and attempt at a natural classification of fossil ungulates In: Palaeontographica. Contributions to the natural history of the pre-world, 22, third delivery from September 1873, Cassel 1876, pp. 131–210, plates VII – IX ( digitized version )
  • Monograph of the genus Anthracotherium Cuv. and attempt at a natural classification of fossil ungulates In: Palaeontographica. Contributions to the natural history of the pre-world, 22, fourth delivery from January 1874, Cassel 1876, pp. 211–290, panel X – XII ( digitized version )
  • Monograph of the genus Anthracotherium Cuv. and attempt at a natural classification of fossil ungulates In: Palaeontographica. Contributions to the natural history of the prehistoric world, 22, fifth delivery from March 1874, Cassel 1876, pp. 291–346, plates XIII – XVII ( digitized version )
  • Osteology of the genus Entelodon Aym. In: Palaeontographica. Contributions to the natural history of the pre-world, 22, seventh delivery from April 1876, Cassel 1876, pp. 415–450, panel XXV – XXVII ( digitized version )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the night of April 27-28
  2. ↑ He thought his work was more important than that of his famous brother. Darwin, interview with Timiriazev
personal data
SURNAME Kovalevsky, Vladimir Onufrijewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ковалевский, Владимир Онуфриевич (Russian); Kowalevsky, Woldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Shustyanka
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1883
Place of death Moscow