Name Georg Goldfuss | ||
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Died October 2, 1848, Bonn, Germany Education University of Erlangen-Nuremberg | ||
Georg August Goldfuss (Goldfuß, 18 April 1782 – 2 October 1848) was a German palaeontologist, zoologist and botanist.
Goldfuss was born at Thurnau near Bayreuth. He was educated at Erlangen, where he graduated Ph.D. in 1804 and became professor of zoology in 1818. He was subsequently appointed professor of zoology and mineralogy at the University of Bonn. Aided by Count Georg zu Münster, he issued the important Petrefacta Germaniae (1826–44), a work which was intended to illustrate the invertebrate fossils of Germany, but it was left incomplete after the sponges, corals, crinoids, echinoderms and part of the mollusca had been figured. A collection of Goldfuss' botanical specimens are housed at Bonn University. Goldfuss died at Bonn.
In 1830, he coined the word protozoa to refer to single-celled organisms such as ciliates.