Ferdinand von Roemer

Carl Ferdinand von Roemer (1818 to 1891) was a German geologist who was first educated for the legal profession at Gottingen, abandoned law in 1840 and studied science at the University of Berlin, where he took his doctorate in 1842. His first work, Das Rheinische Ubergangsgebirge, appeared in 1844 and dealt with the older rocks and fossils. In 1845 he spent a year and a half studying the geology of Texas and other Southern states, publishing a general work called Texas at Bonn in 1849 and a treatise on the Cretaceous rocks and fossils of Texas in 1852, which earned him the title Father of the geology of Texas. From 1847 to 1855 he was privatdocent at Bonn and was then appointed professor of geology, palaeontology and mineralogy at the University of Breslau, a post he held until his death. He made important contributions to the palaeontology of Devonian and older vertebrates, prepared a geological map of Upper Silesia in 1862 and was well known as a mineralogist.