Robert Wiedersheim

Robert Ernst Eduard Wiedersheim (April 21, 1848 in Nürtingen – July 12, 1923 in Schachen (Lindau)) was a German anatomist who is famous for publishing a list of 86 "vestigial organs" in his book The Structure of Man: An Index to His Past History.

Wiedersheim's father was Eduard Friedrich Wiedersheim (1819-1882), a medical doctor and naturalist. His mother, Bertha Friederike Wiedersheim (née Otto, 1825-1848) died a few days after his birth. During his school years Wiedersheim showed an interest in botany and zoology. However, he was not a good student and barely passed the final examination.

Initially commencing a science degree at Lausanne in 1868 Wiedersheim switched after one semester to a medical degree at Tübingen, following his father's wishes. He studied at Tübingen from 1868 to 1870 under Franz Leydig. In 1871 he moved his studies to Würzburg and the following year to Freiburg. In 1872 Wiedersheim finished a doctoral thesis on the finer structural relations of the glands in the gizzard of birds, a subject suggested to him by Carl Hasse while in Würzburg.

In 1873 Wiedersheim married Mathilde (Tilla) Sophie Gruber with whom he had one son, Walter Wiedersheim.

After finishing his studies Wiedersheim returned to Würzburg where he worked as an assistant to Albert von Koelliker until 1876. In 1876 he became an associate professor of anatomy at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg where he taught until 1918. He became an expert in comparative anatomy and published a number of relevant textbooks. He also collected early photographs and documents of scientists of his day. In 1883 Wiedersheim became a full professor of anatomy and succeeded Alexander Ecker as the director of Freiburg's Institute of Anatomy and Comparative Anatomy.

At Freiburg Wiedersheim took part in a lengthy ongoing collaboration with Alexander Ecker and Ernst Gaupp to produce a comprehensive, illustrated atlas of anatomy for the European edible frog Rana esculenta. This collaboration took place over a 40-year period with several publications between 1864 and 1904 under the title Die Anatomie des Frosches and the resulting work is still considered a standard reference on anuran anatomy. A translation by George Haslam of the first two volumes of Die Anatomie des Frosches, including considerable new material, was published under the title The anatomy of the frog in 1889.

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