René-Edouard Claparède (1832–1871), Genevan naturalist and early adopter of Darwin's theory of evolution

Abstract

René-Edouard Claparède was a ground-breaking Swiss naturalist specializing primarily in invertebrate embryology and the study of Protista and Annelida. While a student in Berlin he was encouraged by Christian Ehrenberg to use the latest microscopes and became renowned as a skilful observer and illustrator of the smallest organisms then known and of tiny anatomical details. A popular lecturer in zoology and comparative anatomy in his home town of Geneva, he nonetheless encountered difficulties in that city, still considered the “Protestant Rome”, due to his strong support for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. His involvement in the first French translation of On the origin of species ( Darwin 1862 ) proved problematic too, although his remark, “It is better to be an improved ape than a degenerate Adam,” became a catchphrase in discussions of this contentious debate. Premature death meant that Claparède's work was quickly surpassed in many areas, but the diversity of his many publications, given here in the most complete bibliography compiled to date, is a testament to a widely respected, although overshadowed, naturalist.