Johann Heinrich Blasius

Johann Heinrich Blasius was a German zoologist. His sons, Rudolf Heinrich Paul Blasius and August Wilhelm Heinrich Blasius were ornithologists.

Biography

Blasius was born on 7 October 1809. In 1836, he was appointed as a professor at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig. In 1840, he founded the Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Braunschweig. In 1859, he was appointed as the director of the newly founded Naturhistorisches Museum (Braunschweig) and in 1866 also of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum.

Writings

He was the author of two major books on vertebrates: "Fauna der Wirbelthiere Deutschlands", and "Die wirbelthiere Europa's". He also wrote "Reise im Europäischen Russland in den Jahren 1840 und 1851". In 1862, ornithologist Alfred Newton published "A list of the birds of Europe", a translation based on Blasius' research.
Blasius was also an early contemporary critic of Darwin's On the Origin of Species: