Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus

This article is about the zoologist. For the chemist, see Karl Ernst Claus.

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus
Born	(1835-01-02)2 January 1835 Kassel, Germany
Died	18 January 1899(1899-01-18) (aged 64) Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Alma mater	University of Marburg University of Gießen
Scientific career
Fields	Marine zoology
Institutions	University of Würzburg University of Göttingen University of Vienna
Doctoral advisor	Rudolf Leuckart

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus (2 January 1835 – 18 January 1899) was a German zoologist and anatomist. He was an opponent of the ideas of Ernst Haeckel.

Biography

Claus studied at the University of Marburg and the University of Gießen with Rudolf Leuckart. He worked at the university of Würzburg. In 1863, he became professor of zoölogy at Marburg, in 1870 at Göttingen and in 1873 at Vienna. He was head of the oceanographic research station in Trieste and was specialized on marine zoology and there his interest was focused on crustaceans. During his research on cell biology he coined the word phagocyte.

He is known for the fact that Sigmund Freud started his studies on the yet unsolved eel life history.

Works

Of his numerous works, the following are important:

• Die freilebenden Copepoden (1863);
• Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Ostracoden (1868);
• Grundzüge der Zoölogie (1868) [1];
• Ueber den Bau und die Entwicklung der Cumaceen (1870);
• Die Metamorphose der Squilliden (1872);
• Ueber die Entwicklung Organisation und systematische Stellung der Arguliden (1875);
• Lehrbuch der Zoölogie [2] (6th ed., 1897; trans. into English, under the title of Text-book of Zoölogy, by Claus and Sedgwick, London, 1897 [3]).