Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolf Leuckart (7 October 1822 – 22 February 1898) was a German zoologist born in Helmstedt.

His study of Trichina helped support Rudolf Virchow's campaign to create meat inspection laws in Germany.

[3] With Virchow and Friedrich Albert von Zenker (1825–1898), he was the first to document the life cycle of the parasite Trichinella spiralis in swine and humans.

[1] As a scientist, his provided excellent descriptions of morphologic details giving credence to the idea that zoological evolution can be learned through its anatomical changes.

A quote attributed to Rudolf Leuckart:It is not possible for man, as a thinking being, to close his mind to the knowledge that he is ruled by the same power as is the animal world.