Robert Hartmann (naturalist)

Karl Eduard Robert Hartmann (1832 to 1893) was a German naturalist, anatomist and ethnographer, a native of Blankenburg am Harz. He studied medicine and sciences in Berlin, was an instructor of comparative zoology and physiology at the agricultural academy in Proskau in 1865, and in 1873 became a professor of anatomy at the University of Berlin. In 1859 and 1860 he accompanied Adalbert von Barnim on a mission to northeastern Africa, where he carried out ethnographical, zoological and geographical studies, and in 1869 he founded the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie together with Adolf Bastian. He also wrote a book on anthropoid apes, describing the behaviour of non-human apes and suggesting that humans and non-human apes share an evolutionary common ancestor.