Arnold Edward Ortmann facts for kids

Arnold Edward Ortmann (born April 8, 1863 – died January 3, 1927) was a famous naturalist and zoologist who studied animals. He was especially interested in malacology, which is the study of molluscs like snails, clams, and octopuses. He was born in Prussia (which is now part of Germany) but later moved to the United States.

About Arnold Ortmann's Life

Arnold Ortmann was born in a city called Magdeburg in Prussia on April 8, 1863. He was a student of a well-known scientist named Ernst Haeckel. Arnold Ortmann earned his Ph.D. (a high university degree) from the University of Jena in 1885. He also studied at the University of Kiel and the University of Strasbourg.

From 1886, he worked as a teacher at the University of Strasbourg. He even went on an exciting trip to Zanzibar with Ernst Haeckel in 1890 and 1891. Three years later, he moved to the United States. There, he became a curator at Princeton University. A curator is someone who manages and looks after collections, in his case, old animal fossils without backbones.

In 1899, he joined an expedition to help explorer Robert Peary. A year later, he became a citizen of the U.S. In 1903, he moved to Pittsburgh. He became the curator of animals without backbones at the Carnegie Museum. From 1910, he also taught physical geography at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1911, he earned another special degree called an Sc.D. By 1925, he was in charge of the zoology department at the University of Pittsburgh. Arnold Ortmann passed away in Pittsburgh on January 3, 1927.

What Arnold Ortmann Discovered

Arnold Ortmann did very detailed studies on freshwater mussels and crustaceans (like crabs and shrimp). He paid close attention to where different types of these animals lived. His work was so important that it is still used by scientists today!

In 1920, he came up with an idea called "Ortmann's Law of Stream Position." This law explained that mussels of the same kind could look different depending on where they lived in a river system. For example, mussels living in the smaller, upper parts of a river might look flatter. But the same type of mussels living in larger, wider parts of the river might look more rounded or swollen. He also found that in medium-sized rivers, you could see mussels that were somewhere in between these two looks.

This discovery was very helpful for scientists. Before Ortmann's law, researchers often thought these different-looking mussels were completely different species. But Ortmann showed they were just variations of the same species, adapting to their environment. This made it much simpler to classify and understand molluscs.

The special short name "A.E.Ortmann" is used by scientists when they mention a plant name that Arnold Ortmann helped to describe.

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  A.E. Ortmann

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In Spanish: Arnold Edward Ortmann para niños