15 Facts About Theodor Eimer

Gustav Heinrich Theodor Eimer was a German zoologist.

Theodor Eimer was a popularizer of orthogenesis, a form of directed evolution through mutations that made use of Lamarckian principles.

Theodor Eimer then studied from 1863 at Freiburg, and 1864 at Heidelberg to pass examinations in natural sciences.

Theodor Eimer spent the winter semester of 1865 at the University of Tubingen and in 1866 he worked in Berlin at Rudolf Virchow's laboratory.

Theodor Eimer obtained a medical degree in 1867 and then studied zoology at Freiburg under August Weismann followed by studies in Paris.

Theodor Eimer was one of the founders of the German Zoological Society.

Theodor Eimer volunteered to serve in the army during the Siege of Strasbourg, along with his wife who served as a nurse.

Theodor Eimer however fell ill and was forced to retire and went to the island of Capri to recuperate.

Theodor Eimer made use of studies that he conducted on a blue variant of the Italian wall lizard found on the Faraglioni Rocks off Capri.

Theodor Eimer explained that the island had little vegetation which made them blue rather than green which he claimed was closer to the colour of the rocks and therefore adaptive but he did not explicitly invoke selection as a process.

Theodor Eimer is credited with popularizing the term orthogenesis to describe evolution directed in specific pathways due to restrictions in the direction of variation.

Theodor Eimer's later work, translated as On Orthogenesis, was a more rigidly orthogenetic text, whereas Organic Evolution maintained a plurality of mechanisms for species formation.

The "Theodor Eimer's organs" found in members of the mole family, especially in the star-nosed mole, are named after him.

Theodor Eimer described these organs in the European mole in 1871.

Theodor Eimer worked as an assistant to Eimer until 1899.