Max Carl Wilhelm Weber

Not to be confused with Max Weber.

Max Carl Wilhelm Weber
Born	(1852-12-05)December 5, 1852
Died
Institutions	University of Utrecht, University of Amsterdam, University of Bonn, Humboldt University
Known for	Weber's line
Notable awards	Foreign Member of the Royal Society
Author abbrev. (zoology)	Weber
Spouse	Anna Weber-van Bosse

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 or Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (5 December 1852 in Bonn – 7 February 1937 in Eerbeek) 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 propose Weber's line, which encloses the region in which the mammalian fauna is exclusively Australasian, as an alternative to Wallace's Line. As is the case with plant species, faunal surveys revealed that for 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.

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

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

Publications

• Weber, M. [W. C.] (ed.), 1890-1907. Zoologische Ergebnisse einer Reise in Niederländisch Ost-Indien, 1 (1890-1891): [i-v], i-xi, maps I-III, 1-460, pls. I-XXV; 2 (1892): [i-v], 1-571, pls. I-XXX; 3 (1894): [i-v], 1-476, pls. I-XXII; 4 (1897-1907): [i-v], 1-453, pls. I-XVI (E. J. Brill, Leiden) OCLC 60765525.
• Weber, M. [W. C.], 1902. Introduction et description de l'expedition", I. Siboga-expeditie OCLC 647132542.
• Weber, M. [W. C.], 1904b. Enkele resultaten der Siboga-expeditie. Versl. gewone Vergad. wis- en natuurk. Afd. K. Akad. Wet. Amsterdam, 12 (2): 910-914.
• Weber, M. [W. C.] & L. F. de Beaufort, 1911-1962. The fishes of the Indo-Australian Archipelago, I (1911). Index of the ichthyological papers of P. Bleeker: i-xi, 1-410, 1 portrait; II. (1913). Malacopterygii, Myctophoidea, Ostariophysi: I Siluroidea: i-xx, 1-404, 1 portrait; III. (1916) Ostariophysi: II Cyprinoidea, Apodes, Synbranchii]: i-xv, 1-455; IV. (1922) Heteromi, Solenichthyes, Synentognathi, Percesoces, Labyrinthici, Microcyprini]: i-xiii, 1-410 OCLC 646844856

Gallery

• 

  Portrait of Max Wilhelm Carl

• 

  Max Wilhelm Carl Weber and Anna Weber-van Bosse around 1890

• 

  Siboga expedition group portrait in laboratory

• 

  Siboga expedition group portrait

See also

• Mattheus Marinus Schepman
• Anna Weber-van Bosse

External links

• Querner, H., 1976. Weber, Max Wilhelm Carl. In : C. C. Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of scientific biography, 14 : 203 (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York).
• Pieters, Florence F. J. M. et Jaap de Visser, 1993. The scientific career of the zoologist Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (1852-1937). Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde, 62 (4): 193-214.
• Biography