Ferdinand von Hochstetter
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Ferdinand Christian Ritter von Hochstetter (April 30, 1829 – July 18, 1884), was an Austrian geologist.
He was born at Esslingen, Württemberg, the son of Christian Ferdinand Hochstetter (1787-1860), a clergyman and professor at Bonn, who was also a botanist and mineralogist. Having received his early education at the evangelical seminary at Maulbronn, Ferdinand proceeded to the University of Tübingen and the Tübinger Stift; there, under FA Quenstedt, the interest he already felt in geology became permanently fixed, and he obtained his doctor's degree and a travelling scholarship.
In 1852 he joined the staff of the Imperial Geological Survey of Austria and was engaged until 1856 in parts of Bohemia, especially in the Böhmerwald, and in the Fichtel Hills and Karlsbad mountains. His excellent reports established his reputation. Thus he came to be chosen as geologist to the Novara expedition (1857-1859), and made numerous valuable observations in the voyage round the world.
In 1859 he was employed by the government of New Zealand to make a rapid geological survey of the islands. On his return he was appointed in 1860 professor of mineralogy and geology at the Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute in Vienna, and in 1876 he was made superintendent of the Imperial Natural History Museum. In these later years he explored portions of Turkey and eastern Russia, and he published papers on a variety of geological, palaeontological and mineralogical subjects. He died at Vienna, at age 55.
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[edit] Taxonomy
Ferdinand Hochstetter's name is part of the scientific name of many New Zealand species, including Hochstetter's frog, Leiopelma hochstetteri, the Takahe, Porphyrio hochstetteri, and a species (with 5 subspecies) of New Zealand's giant carnivorous land snails Powelliphanta hochstetteri.
[edit] Publications
- Karlsbad, seine geognostischen Verhältnisse und seine Quellen (1858)
- Neu-Seeland (1863); published in English as New Zealand (1867)
- Geological and Topographical Atlas of New Zealand (1864)
- Leitfaden der Mineralogie and Geologie (with A Bisching) (1876, ed. 8, 1890).
[edit] Notes
Regarding personal names: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as Knight, not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
