Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) was a German zoologist, professor at Jena, and the leading champion of Darwin in Germany. His early monograph on the Radiolaria (1862) was followed by the Challenger Report on the same organisms, by work on sponges, jellyfish and the origins of multicellular life, and by the Generelle Morphologie (1866), in which he coined the words ecology and phylum. His recapitulation theory, that embryos repeat the evolution of their species, was widely accepted and later rejected, and his popular books, The History of Creation and The Riddle of the Universe, sold widely. He was also a gifted draftsman whose plates of marine life became famous.