Schiødte was born in Copenhagen to Mons (Magnus) Laurids S. (1775–1840) and Helene Maria Beck (1782–1833).
From 1842, he was employed as curator under J. H. Reinhardt of the Natural History Museum of Denmark and was a titled professor at the University of Copenhagen from 1854.
[3] His work was widely read "for, as Schiodte remarks: 'We accordingly look upon the subterranean faunas as small ramifications which have penetrated into the earth from the geographically limited faunas of the adjacent tracts, and which, as they extended themselves into darkness, have been accommodated to surrounding circumstances.
Animals not far remote from ordinary forms, prepare the transition from light to darkness.
- Charles Darwin His best known publications were In addition, he described numerous species of insects as well as the spider genus Liphistius.