Ludwig Hermann Plate

{{Short description|German zoologist (1862–1937)}} {{Infobox person | name = Ludwig Plate | image = Ludwig Plate (BerlLeben 1901-09).jpg |birth_date = August 16, 1862 |death_date = November 16, 1937 | occupation = Zoologist}}

'''Ludwig Hermann Plate''' (16 August 1862 – 16 November 1937) was a German zoologist and student of Ernst Haeckel. He wrote a "thorough and extensive defence" of Darwinism, but before Mendel's work had been assimilated in the modern synthesis.<ref>Huggett, Richard. (1997). ''Catastrophism''. Verso. p. 101. {{ISBN|1-85984-129-5}}</ref><ref>Levit, Georgy S; Hoßfeld, Uwe. (2006). ''The Forgotten “Old-Darwinian” Synthesis: The Evolutionary Theory of Ludwig H. Plate (1862–1937).'' NTM International Journal of History & Ethics of Natural Sciences, Technology & Medicine 14: 9-25.</ref>

Born in Bremen, Plate studied mathematics and natural sciences Bonn and in Jena, where he attended the lectures of Ernst Haeckel. In 1888, he achieved the 'Habilitation' in zoology at the University of Marburg. He was offered the Chair of Zoology at Jena University in 1909 through the help of Haeckel, and also became director of the Jena "Phyletisches Museum".<ref>Andreas W. Daum, ''Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914''. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998, pp. 217, 228, 430–435, 505, including a short biography.</ref> <ref name="Levit 2007">Levit, Georgy S; Olsson, Lennart. (2007). ''Evolution on Rails Mechanisms and Levels of Orthogenesis''. In Volker Wissemann. ''Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology 11/2006''. Universitätsverlag Göttingen. pp. 113-115.</ref>

He coined the term Pleiotropy.<ref>Stearns, Frank W. (2010). [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2975297/ "One Hundred Years of Pleiotropy: A Retrospective"]. Genetics 186: 767-773.</ref>

==Evolutionary views== {{further|Orthogenesis|Alternatives to Darwinism}}

Plate was a proponent of what he called ''old-Darwinism'' or ''orthoevolution'', which included a supposedly directed form of natural selection, ''orthoselection''. According to Plate, old-Darwinism follows the ideas of Charles Darwin but also integrates other mechanisms of evolution.<ref name="Levit 2007"/> He attempted to combine Lamarckism, natural selection and orthogenesis into a unified framework. Many of the factors of the modern synthesis of the early 20th century were first mentioned by Plate. He held that random mutation and natural selection have a major role in evolution. He also acknowledged population thinking.<ref name="Levit 2007"/>

He differed from the modern synthesis in accepting non-Darwinian mechanisms of evolution such as the Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics and orthogenesis. Plate coined the term ''orthoselection''. This term was later used by modern synthesis theorists such as Julian Huxley and Bernard Rensch. In his later writings he incorporated research from genetics into his evolutionary writings.<ref name="Levit 2007"/>

==Legacy== A species of Chilean lizard, ''Liolaemus platei'', is named in his honor.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Plate", p. 208).</ref>

==Publications== *''Die Anatomie und Phylogenie der Chitonen'' (1901). *''Über die Bedeutung des Darwin'schen Selektionsprincips und Probleme der Artbildung'' (1903). *''Selektionprinzip und Problem der Artbildung: ein Handbuch der Darwinismus'' (1913). *''Die Abstammungslehre: Tatsachen, Theorien, Einwände und Folgerungen in kurzer Darstellung'' (1925).

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:1862 births Category:1937 deaths Category:German evolutionary biologists Category:20th-century German zoologists Category:Lamarckism Category:Orthogenesis Category:Scientists from Bremen (city) Category:Social Darwinism