GEGENBAUR, KARL. - B. at Würzburg on 21 Aug. 1826 and d. at Heidelberg on 14 June 1903. A pupil of Kölliker and Virchow, he graduated in 1851. He studied the fauna of the Mediterranean in Sicily for three years, and in 1855 obtained the chair of anatomy and physiology at Jena.
He founded a highly flourishing school. He gathered together all the problems and considerations that had emerged from the study of phylogeny and thereby enriched comparative anatomy. He carried out fundamental studies in the comparative anatomy of vertebrates; he formulated the theory of the archipterygium (the search for the type-form of the vertebrate limb); he studied the skull of selachians and refuted the theory of Goethe and others, demonstrating the clear morphogenetic distinction between the prechordal and chordal regions of the vertebrate skull. His most important works are: Untersuchungen zur vergleichenden Anatomie der Wirbeltiere (Leipzig 1864), Das Kopfbelet der Selachier (ibid. 1873), Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbeltiere (ibid. 1901).