Embryology History - Emil Selenka

Introduction

Emil Selenka (1842 –1902) was a German zoologist. He early research was on invertebrates and apes during expeditions he organized to Southeast Asia and South America. His later research was on mammals. He studied the early development of the embryo and the development of the germ layer in mammals, and did comparative anatomic research on apes, especially gibbons and orangutans. He found evidence that the lateral distribution of orangutan races was caused by geographic isolation (a process called allopatric speciation). Selenka also examined the evolution of marsupials and their morphologic relation with reptiles. One problem he was intereted in, was the evolutionary relation between Australian and South American marsupials.

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)