Carl Gegenbaur (21 August 1826 – 14 June 1903)[1] was a German anatomist and professor who demonstrated that the field of comparative anatomy offers important evidence supporting of the theory of evolution.

Gegenbaur's book Grundzüge der vergleichenden Anatomie[2] (1859; English translation Elements of Comparative Anatomy by Francis Jeffrey Bell, 1878) became the standard textbook, at the time, of evolutionary morphology, emphasizing that structural similarities among various animals provide clues to their evolutionary history.

[1] Gegenbaur had been a student of Albert von Kölliker, Rudolf Virchow, Heinrich Müller and Franz Leydig (1821–1908).

He was honoured as one of the greatest comparative anatomists of the day, because of his labours and philosophical investigations into the structure and development of both vertebrate and invertebrate animals.

In 1861, he published "Ueber den Bau und die Entwickelung der Wirbelthier-Eier mit partielleer Dotterbildung" ("Proof that the ovum is unicellular in all vertebrates", Arch.

Gegenbaur learned techniques as a student of Albert von Kölliker, Rudolf Virchow, Heinrich Müller and Franz Leydig (1821–1908).

[3] Carl Gegenbaur had a strong influence on his environment, with his colleagues Matthias Jakob Schleiden, Emil Huschke, Ernst Haeckel, and Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916).

[3] Carl Gegenbaur also influenced his students, including: Max Fürbringer, Richard Hertwig, Oskar Hertwig, Emil Rosenberg, Ambrosius Hubrecht, Johan Erik Vesti Boas (1855–1935), Hans Friedrich Gadow, Georg Ruge[9] M. Sagemehl, N. Goronowitsch, H. K. Corning, C. Röse and S.

[3] Gegenbaur's research program of comparative morphology incorporating ontogeny and phylogeny is still evident in the burgeoning field of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo).