Gans, Carl

Gans, Carl (1923–  ) zoologist; born in Hamburg, Germany. He came to the U.S.A. in 1939 and worked as an engineer for the Babcock and Wilcox Company, N.Y. (1947–55). He was a fellow in biology at the University of Florida (1957–58), and taught and performed research in biology at the State University of New York: Buffalo (1958–71) before becoming a professor at the University of Michigan (1971). He concurrently served as a researcher and consultant to many zoological museums and universities worldwide. Using a biomechanical approach to vertebrate biology, he made major contributions to the systematics of reptiles and amphibians, vertebrate motor coordination studies, shark anatomy, electromyography, and research on the early evolution of vertebrates.