Franz Weidenreich
| Franz Weidenreich | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 June 1873 Edenkoben, Germany |
| Died | July 11, 1948 (aged 75) New York, United States |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields |
anatomist physical anthropologist |
| Institutions | University of Heidelberg |
| Alma mater | University of Strasbourg |
| Notable awards | Viking Fund Medal (1946) |
Franz Weidenreich (7 June 1873, Edenkoben – 11 July 1948, New York City) was a Jewish German anatomist and physical anthropologist who studied evolution.
Weidenreich studied at the University of Strasbourg where he earned a medical degree in 1899. From 1921 to 1924 he served as a Professor of anthropology at the University of Heidelberg and was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago in 1934. In 1935 he succeeded Canadian paleoanthropologist Davidson Black as honorary director of the Cenozoic Research Laboratory of the Geological Survey of China. Weidenreich was among the scientists to claim that Piltdown Man was a "chimera", a composite between two unrelated species, long before fluoride analyses proved that Piltdown Man was a hoax. Weidenreich also renamed Gigantopithecus blacki to Giganthropus blacki, based on a theory that primitive forms of man were much larger than the more recent ones. However, as this theory is contradictory to the Cope-Depéret rule (which states that in straight evolution lines of non-flying animals the size of species increases, not the other way round), it was rejected by Professor Dr. von Koenigswald when he returned from the Japanese concentration camp after the Second World War.
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