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Article: Heer, Oswald
- Article from:
- Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
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Heer, Oswald
(
b
. Niederutzwyl, St. Gallen, Switzerland, 31 August 1809;
d
. Zurich, Switzerland, 27 September 1883)
paleontology, botany
.
Heer was the son of a Protestant minister who educated his son and prepared him for university study. As a boy and young man Heer collected plants and insects in the mountains near Matt, in the canton of Glarus, where the family moved in 1811, and he exchanged samples with other collectors. Following the family tradition, he began to study theology in 1828 at Halle and took his final examinations in this course at St. Gallen. Although deeply religious, he declined to become a minister.
While at the University of Halle, Heer had been in contact with ...