Max Fürbringer

Max Carl Anton Fürbringer (January 30, 1846 – March 6, 1920) was a German anatomist, known for his anatomical investigations of vertebrates and especially for his studies in ornithology on avian morphology and classification.

He was responsible for the first major phylogenetic ordering of bird groups based on a large scale study on a combination of skeletal, morphological and anatomical characteristics.

Max spent his early childhood collecting coins, butterflies, bees, mosses and ferns.

One of Fürbringer teachers was Ernst Haeckel about whom he wrote glowingly: "He stepped into the auditorium, not with the measured step of the professor, but with the triumphant charging-along of an Apollonian youth, hurrying toward the cathedral, a tall, slender, impressive form; ... golden, flying locks, large, blue, flashing eyes—probably the most beautiful man that I had ever seen, and it seemed to me as if the room, which had already been bright, became noticeably brighter..."[3] He obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the muscles and bones of dinosaurs.

The first volume was on the forelimbs and shoulder girdle of vertebrates while the second examined the characters and systematics of bird groups.