Arnold Edward Ortmann

Arnold Edward Ortmann (April 8, 1863 – January 3, 1927) was a Prussian-born United States naturalist and zoologist who specialized in malacology.

Three years later, he emigrated to the United States, where he got a post as the curator of the department of invertebrate paleontology at Princeton University.

He became the curator of invertebrate zoology at the Carnegie Museum and from 1910 on, he was professor of physical geography at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also obtained in 1911 the additional degree of an Sc.D.

[3] Ortmann's thorough taxonomic studies of freshwater mussels and crustaceans with a special focus on the geographical distribution of species was a fundamental groundwork that is even valid today.

This observation helped greatly to simplify the taxonomy of molluscs, because previously, researchers had all too often assigned such different morphotypes to different species.