Karl Friedrich Schimper

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Karl Friedrich Schimper
German naturalist and poet
Born	1803
Died	1867

Karl Friedrich Schimper (1803-1867) was a German naturalist and poet. Born in Mannheim, he was a theology student at Heidelberg University and taught at Munich University. He pioneered research in the field of plant morphology, particularly phyllotaxis. He is perhaps best known as the originator of the theory of prehistoric hot and cold eras, and arguably initiated modern theories of ice ages and climatic cycles. He was a cousin of Wilhelm Philipp Schimper.

Bill Bryson states in his book A Short History of Nearly Everything that Karl Schimper originated the idea of glaciation and proposed the radical idea that ice sheets had once covered much of Europe, Asia, and North America. However, much to his dismay, Schimper lent his notes of these ideas to Louis Agassiz, who went on to appropriate the idea as his own and undeservedly received much of the credit for its origination.