Paul Kammerer

Paul Kammerer (17 August 1880, in Vienna – 23 September 1926, in Puchberg am Schneeberg) was an Austrian biologist who studied evolutionary theory through the medium of investigation of the reproduction and development of amphibians. Although he is now known for advocating a form of Lamarckism, the theory that organisms may pass to their offspring characteristics acquired in their lifetime, meaning variation would be directed towards creating adaptations, he considered himself a Darwinian in the fashion of Ernst Haeckel.

Biography

Education

Kammerer's father was a Viennese factory owner. Little is known about his mother except that she had Jewish heritage. He began his academic career at the Vienna Academy by studying music but graduated with a degree in biology. He went on to work under Hans Przibram, a professor of experimental zoology at the University of Vienna, at Przibram's newly created Institute for Experimental Biology (Biologische Versuchsanstalt).

Biological research

Kammerer's work in biology largely involved breeding and development of amphibians, with a focus on investigating how alterations in the environment in which various salamanders and toads lived or mated would affect their offspring's characteristics. He supported the Lamarckian theory of heritability of acquired characteristics, and he experimented extensively in an effort to prove the theory.

Fire Salamanders and Alpine Salamanders

In his experiments with salamanders, he addressed two characteristics: first, whether the salamander reproduced viviparously or ovoviviparously, and second, whether the salamander was all black, or whether it was black with yellow stripes or spots.

The brightly colored European fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra or Salamandra maculosa) is a species that reproduces larviparously, meaning that while fertilization takes place externally, the female then draws the egg mass into her body, where they develop for a time, and then she gives birth to larval forms that have external gills and require water to survive until further metamorphosis.