- Wilhelm Philipp Schimper
Wilhelm Philipp Schimper (
January 12 ,1808 -March 20 ,1880 ) was a German-Frenchbotanist who was born in Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel, a town near the River Rhine. He was father of botanistAndreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper (1856-1901) and cousin to naturalistKarl Friedrich Schimper (1803-1867) and botanist Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Schimper (1804-1878). After graduation from theUniversity of Strasbourg , he was acurator of the Natural History Museum inStrasbourg , becoming director of the museum in 1839. From 1862 until 1879 he was a professor ofgeology andnatural history at the University of Strasbourg.Schimper's contributions to biology were mainly in the specialized fields of
bryology (study of mosses) andpaleobotany (study of plant fossils). He spent considerable time travelling throughout Europe collecting botanical specimens. His best-known written work is the six-volume "Bryologia Europaea", which was published between 1836 and 1855. It was co-written with Philipp Bruch (1781-1847) and described every species ofmoss known in 19th century Europe.Schimper also made significant contributions in geology. In 1874 Schimper proposed a scientific subdivision of the
Tertiary Era. He called this new subdivision thePaleocene Era, which he based on paleobotanical findings from the Paris Basin.
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