Max Carl Wilhelm Weber

Not to be confused with the German sociologist Max Weber.
Max Carl Wilhelm Weber
Born(1852-12-05)5 December 1852
Bonn, Germany
Died7 February 1937(1937-02-07) (aged 84)
Eerbeek, Netherlands
NationalityGerman
Dutch
Known forWeber's Line
SpouseAnna Weber-van Bosse
AwardsForeign Member of the Royal Society[1]
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Utrecht, University of Amsterdam, University of Bonn, Humboldt University
Author abbrev. (zoology)Weber
Map showing Weber's line in relation to those of Wallace and Lydekker, as well as the probable extent of land at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, when the sea level was more than 110 m lower than today

Max Carl Wilhelm Weber van Bosse or Max Wilhelm Carl Weber[2] (5 December 1852 – 7 February 1937) was a German-Dutch zoologist and biogeographer.

Weber studied at the University of Bonn, then at the Humboldt University in Berlin with the zoologist Eduard Carl von Martens (1831–1904). He obtained his doctorate in 1877. Weber taught at the University of Utrecht then participated in an expedition to the Barents Sea. He became Professor of Zoology, Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Amsterdam in 1883. In the same year he received naturalised Dutch citizenship.

His discoveries as leader of the Siboga Expedition led him to conclude that Wallace's Line was placed too far to the west. His studies, along with others, led to a series of alternative lines to be proposed to delimit two major biogeographic realms, the Australasian realm and the Indomalayan realm. These lines were based on the fauna and flora in general, including the mammalian fauna. Later, Pelseneer published an influential paper on this topic,[3] in which he proposed to call his preferred limit Weber's Line, to honour Weber's contributions in that field. As is the case with plant species, faunal surveys revealed that for mollusks[3] and most vertebrate groups Wallace’s line was not the most significant biogeographic boundary. The Tanimbar Island group, and not the boundary between Bali and Lombok, appears to be the major interface between the Oriental and Australasian regions for mammals and other terrestrial vertebrate groups.[4]

With G.A.F. Molengraaff, Weber gave names to the Sahul Shelf and the Sunda Shelf in 1919.[5]

Weber became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1887.[6]

Weber is commemorated in the scientific names of three species of reptiles: Anomochilus weberi, Hydrosaurus weberi, and Pachydactylus weberi.[7] Two species of mammal are also named after him: Prosciurillus weberi and Myotis weberi.[8]

  1. ^ Thompson, D. W. (1938). "Max Wilhelm Carl Weber. 1852-1937". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 2 (6): 346–355. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1938.0017.
  2. ^ Watkins, M. & Boelens, B. (2015): Sharks: An Eponym Dictionary. pp. 219. Pelagic Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907807-93-0.
  3. ^ a b Pelseneer, Paul (1904). "La ligne de Weber, limite zoologique de l'Asie et de l'Australie". Bulletin de la Classe des Sciences Académie Royale de Belgique. 1904: 1001–1022.
  4. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2009-09-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) page 3-82
  5. ^ Ballard, Chris (1993). "Stimulating minds to fantasy? A critical etymology for Sahul". Sahul in review: pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia. Canberra: Australian National University. p. 17. ISBN 0-7315-1540-4.
  6. ^ "Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (1852 - 1937)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  7. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Weber", p. 280).
  8. ^ Weber, Max (1890). Zoologische Ergebnisse einer reise in Niederländisch Ost-Indien. Bd. 1-4. Leiden: E.J. Brill. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.52289. S2CID 86156252.