Alexander Ecker

Johann Alexander Ecker (10 July 1816 – 20 May 1887) was a German anthropologist and anatomist, born in Freiburg im Breisgau.

He was the son of Johann Matthias Alexander Ecker (1766–1829), a professor at the University of Freiburg.

As an anthropologist, Ecker conducted excavations of early burial sites in the Kaiserstuhl region of southwestern Germany.

With prehistorian Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder (1809–1893), he founded the first German journal of anthropology, the Archiv für Anthropologie.

Ecker conducted anatomical studies of the brain, being known for his investigations of cerebral convolutions in the fetus.

Alexander Ecker (1816-1887)
Picture of a human embryo, from Ecker's "Icones physiologicae" (1851-1859).