Moritz Wagner
German naturalist (1813-1887) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moritz Wagner (Bayreuth, 3 October 1813 – Munich, 31 May 1887) was a German explorer, collector, geographer and naturalist.
Wagner devoted three years (1836–1839) to the exploration of Algiers.[1] It was there that he made an important discovery in natural history, which he later developed.
His idea, first based on a study of flightless beetles, was that geographical isolation could play a key role in speciation. Although at first rejected, this idea turned out to be important in the theory of evolution.
From 1852–1855, together with a companion, Wagner travelled through North and Central America and the Caribbean. In May 1843, Wagner toured the Lake Sevan region of Armenia.[2] In his old age he committed suicide in Munich, aged 73. His brother Rudolf was a physiologist and anatomist.