Emil Selenka
Encyclopedia
Selenka was the son of bookbinder Johannes Selenka (1801-1871). He studied natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
at the University of Göttingen, and following his dissertation on Holothuroidea, he remained in Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
as an assistant to Wilhelm Moritz Keferstein
Wilhelm Moritz Keferstein
Wilhelm Moritz Keferstein was a German naturalist.He wrote Zoologische Beiträge gesammelt im Winter 1859/60 in Neapel und Messina... in 1861 at Leipzig....
(1833-1870). His research was in this period mainly on the anatomy, taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
and embryology
Embryology
Embryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...
of marine invertebrates
Marine invertebrates
Marine invertebrates are animals that inhabit a marine environment and are invertebrates, lacking a vertebral column. In order to protect themselves, they may have evolved a shell or a hard exoskeleton, but this is not always the case....
, especially organisms from the phylum
Phylum
In biology, a phylum The term was coined by Georges Cuvier from Greek φῦλον phylon, "race, stock," related to φυλή phyle, "tribe, clan." is a taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. "Phylum" is equivalent to the botanical term division....
Echinodermata. In 1868 he became a professor of zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
and comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
at the University of Leiden, and in 1874 relocated to the University of Erlangen. In 1895 he was given an honorary professorship at the University of Munich. He was co-founder of the journal Biologisches Zentralblatt.
His later research was on mammals. He studied the early development of the embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
and the development of the germ layer
Germ layer
A germ layer, occasionally referred to as a germinal epithelium, is a group of cells, formed during animal embryogenesis. Germ layers are particularly pronounced in the vertebrates; however, all animals more complex than sponges produce two or three primary tissue layers...
in mammals, and did comparative anatomic
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
research on apes, especially gibbon
Gibbon
Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae . The family is divided into four genera based on their diploid chromosome number: Hylobates , Hoolock , Nomascus , and Symphalangus . The extinct Bunopithecus sericus is a gibbon or gibbon-like ape which, until recently, was thought to be closely related...
s and orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
s. He found evidence that the lateral distribution of orangutan races was caused by geographic isolation (a process called allopatric speciation
Allopatric speciation
Allopatric speciation or geographic speciation is speciation that occurs when biological populations of the same species become isolated due to geographical changes such as mountain building or social changes such as emigration...
). Selenka also examined the evolution of marsupials and their morphologic
Morphology (biology)
In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....
relation with reptiles. One problem he was intereted in, was the evolutionary relation between Australian and South American marsupials.
To collect material Selenka organized expeditions to tropical
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
countries. In 1877 he undertook an expedition to Brasil. From 1892 he led an expedition that lasted two years to Southeast Asia, it visited Ceylon, the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Among the participants was his second wife, the zoologist and feminist Margarethe Selenka
Margarethe Selenka
Lenore Margarethe Selenka-Heinemann was a German zoologist, anthropologist, feminist and pacifist. She was one of the first female scientists whose work was widely recognized...
(1860-1922), with whom he was married in 1893. When Selenka became severely ill during his stay in the Dutch East Indies and had to return to Germany, his wife continued exploring the jungles of Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
by herself. The couple wrote a report of their journeys together, titled Sonnige Welten- Ostasiatische Reiseskizzen. Other publications by Emil Selenka are:
- Beiträge zur Anatomie und Systematik der Holothurien, (1867)
- Zoologische Studien, (1878)
- Studien über Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere, (1883)
- Zoologisches Taschenbuch für Studierende zum Gebrauch bei Vorlesungen und praktischen Übungen zusammengestellt, (1897)
Literature
- 1922
- Emil Selenka, ein Gedenkblatt zur achtzigsten Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages am 27. Februar, Naturwissenschaften 10(8), pp 179-181