Background
Ortmann, Arnold Edward was born on April 8, 1863 in Magdeburg, Prussia. Son of Professor Edward Franz and Bertha (Lorenz) Ortmann.
Botanist Zoologist carcinologist
Ortmann, Arnold Edward was born on April 8, 1863 in Magdeburg, Prussia. Son of Professor Edward Franz and Bertha (Lorenz) Ortmann.
Gymnasium education, Magdeburg and (graduate) schleusingen (Thuringia). Studied at university of Jena, Kiel and Strassburg. Doctor of Philosophy, Jena, 1885.
Doctor of Science, University of Pittsburgh, 1911.
From 1886 on, he worked as an instructor at the University of Strasbourg. Together with Haeckel, he participated in an expedition to Zanzibar in 1890/91. Three years later, he emigrated to the United States, where he got a post as the curator of the department of invertebrate paleontology at Princeton University.
In 1899, he participated in the Peary Relief expedition, and one year later, he was naturalized as a United States. citizen.
In 1903, he moved to Pittsburgh. He became the curator of invertebrate zoology at the Carnegie Museum and from 1910 on, he was professor of physical geography at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also obtained in 1911 the additional degree of an Doctor of Science. In 1925, he became the chair of zoology at the University of Pittsburgh.
While studying the Naiad-shells of the upper Ohio-drainage, the fact was forced upon my mind, that certain species which inhabit the headwaters and smaller streams are represented, in the larger streams, by different, but very similar forms, which are distinguished from them chiefly by one character, namely obesity. The headwater-forms are rather compressed or flat, the large-river-forms more convex and swollen.
I also found that in the rivers of medium size intergrades between the extremes are actually present.
This observation helped greatly to simplify the taxonomy of molluscs, because previously, researchers had all too often assigned such different morphotypes to different species. The standard author transcript "A.E.Ortmann" is used to indicate Ortmann when citing a botanical name.
Served as 1-year volunteer in 5th Thuringia Infantry, German Army, 1882-1883. Member Princeton Arctic (Peary relief) expedition, 1899.
Married Anna Zaiss, December 5, 1894.