Max Fürbringer

Max Fürbringer (1846 to 1920) was a German anatomist and ornithologist, a leading figure of the comparative anatomy school of Carl Gegenbaur. Born in Wittenberg, he studied natural sciences at Jena and Berlin, took his doctorate in Berlin in 1869 with a zoological thesis, became Gegenbaur's sole assistant at Jena and, at his urging, also studied medicine. He followed Gegenbaur to Heidelberg in 1873 and qualified there in anatomy in 1877. He was appointed full professor at Amsterdam in 1879, took the anatomy chair at Jena in 1888 and returned to Heidelberg in 1901 as Gegenbaur's successor, retiring in 1912. His early work dealt with the development of the kidney and with the cranial and spinal nerves of fishes. His monumental two volume study of the morphology and systematics of birds, published in 1888, compared the breast, shoulder and wing of the whole bird class and produced a system of birds still largely valid in outline. He also wrote a biography of Gegenbaur.