Johann Christian Rosenmüller

Johann Christian Rosenmüller (1771 to 1820) was a German anatomist born near Hildburghausen in Thuringia, the son of the theologian Johann Georg Rosenmüller. He studied at the universities of Leipzig and Erlangen, was appointed prosector at the anatomical institute in Leipzig in 1794, took his doctorate in 1797 and from 1802 until his death was professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Leipzig. He wrote several treatises on anatomy and surgery, and several anatomical structures carry his name, among them Rosenmüller's fossa, the lateral recess of the nasopharynx, Rosenmüller's gland, the palpebral part of the lacrimal gland, and Rosenmüller's organ, also called the parovarium. An avid explorer of caves, in 1794 he gave the extinct cave bear its binomial name Ursus spelaeus after studying bones found near the village of Muggendorf.