Ferdinand von Hochstetter
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
.
He was born at Esslingen
Esslingen am Neckar
Esslingen am Neckar is a city in the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, capital of the District of Esslingen as well as the largest city in the district....
, Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
, the son of Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter
Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter
Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter was a German botanist and Protestant minister who was a native of Stuttgart. He was the father of geologist Ferdinand Hochstetter ....
(1787-1860), a clergyman and professor at Bonn, who was also a botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
and mineralogist
Mineralogy
Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...
. Having received his early education at the evangelical seminary at Maulbronn
Maulbronn
Maulbronn is a city in the district of Enz in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.-History:Founded in 1838, it emerged from a settlement, built around a monastery, which belonged to the Neckar Community in the Kingdom of Württemberg. In 1886, Maulbronn officially became a German town and was an...
, Ferdinand proceeded to the University of Tübingen and the Tübinger Stift
Tübinger Stift
The Tübinger Stift is a hall of residence and teaching; it is owned and supported by the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg, and located in the university city of Tübingen, in South West Germany. The Stift was originally founded as an Augustinian monastery in the Middle Ages...
; there, under FA Quenstedt
Friedrich August von Quenstedt
Friedrich August von Quenstedt , was a German geologist and palaeontologist.-Life:Von Quenstedt was born at Eisleben in Saxony, and educated at the Humboldt University of Berlin...
, the interest he already felt in geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
became permanently fixed, and he obtained his doctor's degree and a travelling scholarship.
In 1852 he joined the staff of the Imperial Geological Survey of Austria and was engaged until 1856 in parts of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, especially in the Böhmerwald
Bohemian Forest
The Bohemian Forest, also known in Czech as Šumava , is a low mountain range in Central Europe. Geographically, the mountains extend from South Bohemia in the Czech Republic to Austria and Bavaria in Germany...
, and in the Fichtel Hills and Karlsbad mountains. His excellent reports established his reputation. Thus he came to be chosen as geologist to the Novara expedition (1857–59), and made numerous valuable observations in the voyage round the world.
In 1859 he was employed by the government of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
to make a rapid geological survey of the islands. On his return he was appointed in 1860 professor of mineralogy
Mineralogy
Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...
and geology at the Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and in 1876 he was made superintendent of the Imperial Natural History Museum
Imperial Natural History Museum
The Imperial Natural History Museum or Imperial Royal Natural History Court Museum of Austria-Hungary was created by Emperor Franz Joseph I during an extensive reorganization of the museum collections, from 1851–1876, and opened to the public on August 10, 1889.Located in Vienna, the Museum was...
. In these later years he explored portions of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and eastern Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and he published papers on a variety of geological, palaeontological and mineralogical subjects. He died in Oberdöbling
Oberdöbling
Oberdöbling was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...
near Vienna, at age 55.
Hochstetter Peak
Hochstetter Peak
Hochstetter Peak is the partly ice-free bluff rising to over 1000 m in the southeast foothills of Louis-Philippe Plateau on Trinity Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica...
on Trinity Peninsula
Trinity Peninsula
Trinity Peninsula is the extreme northern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula, extending northeastward for about from a line connecting Cape Kjellman and Cape Longing. Dating back more than a century, chartmakers used various names for this portion of the Antarctic peninsula, each name having some...
in Antarctica is named after Ferdinand von Hochstetter.
Taxonomy
New Zealand's endemic Hochstetter's frogHochstetter's Frog
Hochstetter's frog is a primitive frog native to New Zealand, one of only four extant species belonging to the taxonomic family Leiopelmatidae...
, Leiopelma hochstetteri, is named after Ferdinand. Several other species bear his name in their scientific names, including the Takahe
Takahe
The Takahē or South Island Takahē, Porphyrio hochstetteri is a flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand and belonging to the rail family. It was thought to be extinct after the last four known specimens were taken in 1898...
, Porphyrio hochstetteri, and Powelliphanta hochstetteri
Powelliphanta hochstetteri
Powelliphanta hochstetteri, known as one of the amber snails, is a species of large, carnivorous land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Rhytididae.-Distribution:...
, a species (with five subspecies) of New Zealand's giant carnivorous land snails.
Publications
- Karlsbad, seine geognostischen Verhältnisse und seine Quellen (1858)
- Neu-Seeland (1863); published in English as New Zealand: its physical geography, geology, and natural history: with special reference to the results of government expeditions in the provinces of Auckland and Nelson (1867) http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/1867_-_von_Hochstetter%2C_Ferdinand._New_Zealand
- Geological and Topographical Atlas of New Zealand (1864)
- The geology of New Zealand: in explanation of the geographical and topographical atlas of New Zealand] (1864) http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/1864_-_von_Hochstetter%2C_Ferdinand._The_Geology_of_New_Zealand
- Leitfaden der Mineralogie and Geologie (with A Bisching) (1876, ed. 8, 1890).