Gegenbaur, Karl

Gegenbaur, Karl (kärl gā`gənbour), 1826–1903, German anatomist. A professor at the universities of Jena (1855–73) and Heidelberg (1873–1901), he was influential as a teacher. He emphasized the value of comparative anatomy in the study of evolution and of homologies. He showed (1861) that the ovum of every vertebrate is a single cell.

---

Gegenbaur, Karl

(born Aug. 21, 1826, Würzburg, Bavaria—died June 14, 1903, Heidelberg, Ger.) German anatomist. A strong supporter of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, he showed that comparative anatomy supplies evidence of it. His Elements of Comparative Anatomy (1859) stressed that structural similarities in different animals, especially parts with a common origin (e.g., human arm, horse's foreleg, and bird's wing), give clues to their evolutionary history.