Martin Rathke

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Martin Heinrich Rathke (August 25, 1793 — September 3, 1860) was a German embryologist and anatomist.

Rathke was professor of zoology and anatomy at Königsberg from 1835 to 1860. He studied marine organisms and the embryonic development of sex organs. He was the first to describe the gill slits and gill arches in the embryos of mammals and birds. He also first described in 1839 the embryonic structure, now known as Rathke's pouch, from which the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland develops.