- Ferdinand von Roemer
Carl Ferdinand von Roemer (
5 January 1818 –14 December 1891 ), German geologist, had originally been educated for the legal profession at Göttingen, but became interested ingeology , and abandoning law in 1840, studied science at theUniversity of Berlin , where he graduatedPh.D. in 1842.Two years later he published his first work, "Das Rheinische Ubergangsgebirge" (1844), in which he dealt with the older rocks and
fossil s. In 1845 he paid a visit to America, and devoted a year and a half to a careful study of the geology ofTexas and other Southern states. He published atBonn in 1849 a general work entitled "Texas", while the results of his investigations of theCretaceous rocks and fossils were published three years later in a treatise, "Die Kreidebildungen von Texas und ihre organischen Einschlusse" (1852), which included also a general account of the geology, and gained for him the title Father of the geology of Texas.Subsequently he published at
Breslau "Die Silurische Fauna des westlichen Tennessee" (1860). During the preparation of these works he was from 1847 to 1855privatdocent at Bonn, and was then appointed professor of geology,palaeontology andmineralogy in theUniversity of Breslau , a post which he held with signal success as a teacher until his death.As a palaeontologist he made important contributions to our knowledge especially of the
vertebrate s of theDevonian and older rocks. He assisted H. G. Bronn with the third edition of the "Let haea geognostica" (1851-56), and subsequently he labored on an enlarged and revised edition, of which he published one section, "Lethaea palaeozoica" (1876-1883). In 1862 he was called on to superintend the preparation of ageological map of UpperSilesia , and the results of his researches were embodied in his "Geologie von Oberschlesien" (3 vols., 1870). As a mineralogist he was likewise well known, more particularly by his practical teachings and by the collection he formed in the Museum at Breslau. He died at Breslau on the 14th of December 1891.His brother,
Friedrich Adolph Roemer , was also a geologist.References
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