Karl Ernst, knight von Baer summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Karl Ernst von Baer.

Karl Ernst, knight von Baer, (born Feb. 29, 1792, Piep, Est., Russian Empire—died Nov. 28, 1876, Dorpat, Est.), Prussian-born Estonian embryologist. Studying chick development with Christian Pander (1794–1865), Baer expanded Pander’s concept of germ layer formation to all vertebrates, thereby laying the foundation for comparative embryology. He emphasized that embryos of one species could resemble embryos (but not adults) of another and that the younger the embryo, the greater the resemblance, a concept in line with his belief that development proceeds from simple to complex, from like to different. He also discovered the mammalian ovum. His On the Development of Animals (2 vol., 1828–37) surveyed all existing knowledge on vertebrate development and established embryology as a distinct subject of research.

mammal Summary

Mammal, (class Mammalia), any member of the group of vertebrate animals in which the young are nourished with milk from special mammary glands of the mother. In addition to these characteristic milk glands, mammals are distinguished by several other unique features. Hair is a typical mammalian

ethnography Summary

Ethnography, descriptive study of a particular human society or the process of making such a study. Contemporary ethnography is based almost entirely on fieldwork and requires the complete immersion of the anthropologist in the culture and everyday life of the people who are the subject of his

physical anthropology Summary

Physical anthropology, branch of anthropology concerned with the origin, evolution, and diversity of people. Physical anthropologists work broadly on three major sets of problems: human and nonhuman primate evolution, human variation and its significance (see also race), and the biological bases of

cultural anthropology Summary

Cultural anthropology, a major division of anthropology that deals with the study of culture in all of its aspects and that uses the methods, concepts, and data of archaeology, ethnography and ethnology, folklore, and linguistics in its descriptions and analyses of the diverse peoples of the world.