Baer, Karl Ernst von, << bair, kahrl urnst fuhn >> (1792-1876), a German biologist, is considered the founder of embryology. Embryology is the study of the early development of animals and plants. Baer identified the primary cell layers of embryos of mammals, and he was the first to discover the egg of the mammal in the ovary. Baer’s writings include The Origin of Mammal Eggs (1827) and The Embryology of Animals (1828, 1837).
Baer was born on Feb. 29, 1792, in Estonia. He attended medical school there, and he later moved to Germany to study anatomy. In 1819, Baer became professor of anatomy at the University of Königsberg in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He accomplished his most significant work in embryology there. From 1834 to 1867, Baer worked at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. He died on Nov. 28, 1876.
