Portal:Marine life/Selected Biography/February, 2007

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Anton Dohrn at a microscope in his laboratory

Felix Anton Dohrn ( September 29, 1840 - September 26, 1909) was a prominent Darwinist and the founder and first director of the Stazione Zoologica, Naples, Italy.

Dohrn was born in Stettin, Pomerania, present day Poland, in 1840, into a wealthy middle class family. His grandfather, Heinrich Dohrn, had been a wine and spice merchant, and had made the family fortune by trading in sugar. This wealth allowed Anton's father, Carl August, to devote himself to his various hobbies; travelling, folk music and insects. Anton, the youngest son, read zoology and medicine at various German universities (Königsberg, Bonn, Jena and Berlin), with little application or enthusiasm for his studies.

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