Karl Ernest von Baer

Karl Ernest von Baer (1792-1876), also Karl Ernst von Baer, was a German biologist. He was a native of Esthonia; professor of zoology, first in Königsberg and then in St. Petersburg. He was the greatest of modern embryologists, styled the "father of comparative embryology". He was also the discoverer of the law, known by his name, that the embryo when developing resembles those of successively higher types. According to the principle he formulated, general characters appear before special ones do in the developing embryo. He also discovered that ova are particles within the ovarian follicles. Darwin, in his theory of evolution, used the studies of Baer.